Never underestimate the American spirit's determination in the face of adversity—in this case, the determination to learn a little Mandarin so that it's easier to use the popular TikTok alternative RedNote.
Popular language learning app Duolingo revealed yesterday (January 15) that the number of people learning Chinese has increased by a staggering 216% compared to the same period last year. Why did the huge collision suddenly occur? Possibly because TikTok is set to be banned in the U.S. this Sunday, January 19, and U.S. users would apparently rather flock to another Chinese short video app, RedNote (known as “Little Red Book” in China) — where the default user The interface language within the app is Chinese - rather than settling for any alternative that Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or YouTube might try to offer.
App analytics firm Appfigures (via TechCrunch) provides more evidence that the looming TikTok ban may be driving this interest. They said that since January 3, downloads of Duolingo apps on the U.S. App Store and Google Play have surged 36%, ranking 22nd on the company's list of top apps.
As they have done in the past, Duolingo has ridden the wave. The company shared a video on TikTok (watch it while you still can) of their green bird mascot sitting in an airport reciting some Mandarin phrases for starters, starting with: "Welcome TikTok refugees."
RedNote, which has about 300 million monthly users since its launch in 2013, has an interface reminiscent of TikTok and Pinterest and also has live streaming capabilities. It remains to be seen whether the app has staying power in the United States in the long term, although this surge in interest may prompt the company to make the app more accessible to non-Chinese-speaking users (not that there's anything wrong with learning a foreign language), even in the most minor cases).
That said, an entire Chinese-owned app could very well put RedNote in the same inevitable position as TikTok. The law passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden last spring reportedly forced TikTok parent company ByteDance to sell its U.S. assets, a move aimed at shielding U.S. social media users from the Chinese government and protecting their personal data. However, whether US users actually care about this or not, the evidence seems to speak for itself.
TikTok has been fighting the legislation and last week their case went to the Supreme Court. However, the judges seemed less sympathetic to the company, and the court seemed likely to side with the government, upholding all lower court rulings that had already gone against the app. A ruling on the matter is expected this week, with incoming President Donald Trump - who previously signed an executive order threatening to ban TikTok in 2020 - now asking the court to let him "save" the app application.