What is a red bet? TikTok U.S. ban looms, social app jumps to No. 1

TikTok could be banned in the U.S. as early as Jan. 19 over concerns about its Chinese ownership, unless it gets a reprieve from the Supreme Court or Beijing-based parent company ByteDance complies with federal law forcing it to sell its shares in TikTok of shares. app.

With this sword hanging over TikTok's head, thousands of the app's U.S. users have been downloading a potential alternative: Xiaohongshu, also known as “Red Notes,” a social app Program that allows users to share content in a variety of formats, including photos, text, videos, and live broadcasts.

Kicker? Red Note is owned by a Chinese company, Xingin Information Technology (Shanghai), and many TikTok “refugees” have been delighted by the irony that the U.S. could ban a Chinese app due to national security concerns, which pushes adoption of another app. .

According to Reuters, over the past two days, Xiaohongshu has been the No. 1 free downloaded iPhone app in the U.S. Apple App Store, with more than 700,000 new users joining Xiaohongshu during this period. TikTok users who have created accounts on Red Note have added hashtags such as #tiktokrefugee or #tiktok to their posts.

On Tuesday, more than 100,000 people joined a Red Note Live group chat hosted by a user called the “TikTok Refugee Club,” where “people from around the world discuss urban safety with Chinese users,” while on another forum, according to the New York Times ” reported that participants “discussed censorship and shared tips in the comments on how to avoid being banned from the platform for raising politically sensitive topics.”

Xiaohongshu was founded in 2013 and was valued at $17 billion last year after raising funds from investors including Boyu Capital and Sequoia Capital Group, the former Chinese investment arm of Sequoia Capital, according to financial database PitchBook. The company has raised more than $900 million in funding to date and has more than 2,000 employees, according to PitchBook.

Despite its popularity, the Red Note could also be the target of stripping or banning laws in the United States. In addition to explicitly stipulating that TikTok and ByteDance are subject to the law, the restrictions imposed by the legislation also apply to any company “controlled by a foreign adversary,” meaning any Chinese company would be subject to the same regulations. As a Reddit commenter on the r/TikTok subreddit put it, “No one thinks Rednote is a viable long-term alternative. This is just a protest; a middle finger to the US government and its billionaire master.”

Xiaohongshu's Chinese name, “小红书”, translates as “Little Red Book” – which is the name of the book of Mao Zedong's quotations – but users more commonly refer to it in English as “Red Note”.

“Xiaohongshu is a lifestyle platform that inspires people to discover and connect with different lifestyles, with more than 300 million users sharing their life experiences every month,” a description of the app on Apple's App Store says. The app allows users to discover posts about “a range of different interests and hobbies that are popular among young people”, from recent trends such as tea making, camping, frisbee and other outdoor activities, to discovering styles such as fashion, Cooking, reading, drawing, sports and fitness. “

Xiaohongshu says on its website that its mission is to “enlighten life.” “This innovative platform combines authentic content shared by the community with commerce, quickly becoming one of the most popular destinations for lifestyle decisions,” the website states.