--- title: The Lure of Chinese App Red Note description: There are good reasons why American 'TikTok refugees' are flocking to this app over others. But the exodus may not last. canonical: https://time.com/7207351/tiktok-refugees-us-red-note/ author: Yaling Jiang article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-01-16T11:44:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-19T07:49:35.802Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The Lure of Chinese App Red Note og:description: There are good reasons why American 'TikTok refugees' are flocking to this app over others. But the exodus may not last. og:url: https://time.com/7207351/tiktok-refugees-us-red-note/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5aa048b73ac581c0/6998b2819fbc7cf5c3d97d4f/GettyImages-2193985013.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Upcoming U.S. TikTok Ban Drives Users To Another Chinese Social Media App og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Lure of Chinese App Red Note twitter:description: There are good reasons why American 'TikTok refugees' are flocking to this app over others. But the exodus may not last. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5aa048b73ac581c0/6998b2819fbc7cf5c3d97d4f/GettyImages-2193985013.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Lure of Chinese App Red Note > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=f4ff6f01-13c7-44c5-8cb0-a607ffe0eb0b&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Why So Many TikTokers Are Moving to the Chinese App Red Note Ahead of Ban [Watch (HLS stream): Why So Many TikTokers Are Moving to the Chinese App Red Note Ahead of Ban](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/VWs6PZHQ.m3u8) (2:02)  _Published 2025-01-15. With the TikTok ban looming in less than a week, creators are scrambling to find a replacement. Many have simply migrated over to TikTok’s direct American competitors, like Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts. But another unlikely challenger has emerged: the Chinese-owned Xiaohongshu, a social media app often referred to as Red Note in English._ by [Yaling Jiang](https://time.com/author/yaling-jiang/) ## Yaling Jiang Jan 16, 2025 11:44 AM UTC With the TikTok ban looming in less than a week, creators are scrambling to find a replacement. Many have simply migrated over to TikTok’s direct American competitors, like Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts. But another unlikely challenger has emerged: the Chinese-owned Xiaohongshu, a social media app often referred to as Red Note in English. by [Yaling Jiang](https://time.com/author/yaling-jiang/) ## Yaling Jiang Jan 16, 2025 11:44 AM UTC During a recent layover in Tokyo from China to the U.S., as I was planning the ramen spot I was going to hit and friends I wanted to catch up with, I was stopped by a middle-aged border agent. “This is Japan, you need a visa,” he said sternly. I knew I didn’t need one according to official rules, but I didn’t speak Japanese to argue with him. As I turned back, thinking that I had to live like Tom Hanks in _The Terminal_ before my next flight, I searched on Red Note. Thanks to multiple posts by people who had been in the exact same situation, I learned that I had to go to a specific counter by the corner and ask for a “shore pass.” I was able to enter Japan for 72 hours instead of sleeping on a bench in my 30s. That’s the kind of obscure situation Red Note has saved people out of. Since last weekend, the “TikTok refugees”—the American social media users who are [flocking to Red Note](https://time.com/7206781/red-note-tiktok-migration/) ahead of the [U.S. ban](https://time.com/7205609/supreme-court-tiktok-arguments-ban/) [on Sunday](https://time.com/7203951/trump-supreme-court-delay-tiktok-ban/)—are being welcomed with Chinese memes, photos of food, pets, street views, and Taylor Swift lyrics. English-language tutorials are helping them navigate the Chinese app. Although Red Note may now be known as the [no.1 free app in the U.S.](https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/rednote-chinese-tiktok-alternative-tops-app-charts-ahead-ban-rcna187497), it has since its inception in 2013 been known as a forum that caters to middle-class Chinese users’ niche interests and hobbies—a lifestyle guide on dining and travel, and a search engine for questions big and small. Yet the ongoing digital migration—helped by the #TikTokrefugee hashtag that has amassed 872 million views and 16 million discussions so far—will likely be a unique and short-lived phase. And either Beijing, Washington, or Red Note itself needs to find a solution fast. **Read More:** [_Will You Still Be Able to Use TikTok If It's Banned?_](https://time.com/7207176/tik-tok-ban-what-happens/) From a business perspective, Red Note has achieved something TikTok owner ByteDance has been dreaming of for years—winning overseas users without trying too hard. In 2020, ByteDance launched a knockoff version, Lemon8, and has [paid users](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/29/technology/tiktok-lemon8-content-creators.html) to post on it. Yet the app has [struggled to retain users](https://restofworld.org/2023/lemon8-app-bytedance-user-decline/#). It has recently benefited from the TikTok migration, now ranking at no. 2 on the U.S. app store, but almost all the buzz surrounds Red Note. Why aren’t more users turning instead to Weibo, Bilibili, Kwai, or indeed, the real Chinese TikTok Douyin? Red Note was initially prototyped in October 2013 by Stanford University graduate Mao Wenchao and Qu Fang as a shopping guide for female consumers. It has now evolved into a lifestyle guru for around 300 million people. The app has a highly educated audience, which includes a large diasporic population who speak fluent English. Because of their shared socio-economic background, the platform’s users are keen to provide value and feedback to each other, like how I found help at the airport. It is also the most apolitical social platform in China. On Nov. 16, 2023, the day of Xi Jinping’s first visit to the U.S. in years, I [analyzed](https://www.chineseconsumers.news/p/china-internet-reaction-biden-xi) the trending lists on Chinese social media. While lists on other apps were peppered with items like “China will be unified and must be unified” (Weibo) and “Biden shows a 38-year-old photo to Xi Jinping” (Douyin), Red Note’s users were concerned about “the boundary of two married people” and “[white people food](https://www.bonappetit.com/story/white-people-food-meme-explained?srsltid=AfmBOoqXnMzsIf0m86HXkM5yj%5FyqcSPoVd9HyJMsULFHhDSuuH1hAUpV).” It’s not difficult to imagine that even if U.S. users tried other Chinese platforms, they may encounter more nationalism, hostility, or, at best, indifference. For now, the posts I come across on Red Note are mostly about food, pets, and ordinary people. But what happens if political activists decide to use the platform to amplify their voices? And more likely, what happens if American users, who are used to free speech, want to verify the news they’ve been hearing about China, on Tibet, Xinjiang, Taiwan, or labor rights? The hodgepodge of Western and Chinese users within the “Great Firewall” has created unprecedented regulatory problems that have never been dealt with by either China or the U.S. Before Red Note became a thing for Americans, China could simply block an app that’s operating on its soil. But what about now? As of Wednesday, a Weibo trending item may have spelled out the solution: “[Red Note is urgently recruiting English content moderators](https://s.weibo.com/weibo?q=%E5%B0%8F%E7%BA%A2%E4%B9%A6%E8%BF%9E%E5%A4%9C%E6%8B%9B%E8%81%98%E8%8B%B1%E6%96%87%E5%86%85%E5%AE%B9%E5%AE%A1%E6%A0%B8%E5%91%98&topic%5Fad=&t=547) \[Chinese\].” China’s censorship has intensified since Xi took office in 2012, with stricter measures like [enhanced online real-name verification](https://www.scmp.com/tech/policy/article/3153887/china-updates-rules-real-name-registration-online-crackdown-schemes) and the silencing of high-profile voices including [economists](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-01/china-strategist-hong-hao-has-social-media-accounts-frozen), [law firms](https://www.reuters.com/world/china/beijing-pushes-toning-down-china-risks-ipo-prospectuses-sources-2023-07-24/), and even [stock analysts](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-23/china-s-grip-on-hong-kong-means-analysts-are-censoring-more-of-their-own-work?embedded-checkout=true). Red Note’s relatively non-political user base has helped protect it. But in recent years it has increasingly featured emotional stories about economic struggles, published content banned by state media, and played host to posts that criticized Chinese officials and the government. The recent flood of American users to Red Note may push Beijing to pay more attention to the app. Indeed, China’s censorship has routinely evolved with the times. While in middle school in the early 2000s, I sent out five postcards to Ohio as part of a cultural exchange programand only received one back. Part of me always wondered if my government seized them. In 2008, I was excited to follow American Idol contestants on Facebook. But that faded a year later when Beijing [blocked](https://time.com/6139988/countries-where-twitter-facebook-tiktok-banned/) the platform. And in 2021, I was almost sleepless when Clubhouse was live in mainland China, when many Chinese users were discussing political issues freely. That freedom lasted a mere two weeks. While the U.S. TikTok ban and censorship in China are inescapable facts, people always find a way to connect—if not for on TikTok or Red Note, then somewhere else. ## Transcript [00:00] Readers are scrambling to find a replacement for Tik Tok as the threat of a ban looms. [00:04] Could the Chinese owned social media app Shao hung Shu or Red Note, [00:08] in English, be a replacement for TikTok? [00:10] Well, Red Note had previously catered almost exclusively to Chinese audiences, [00:15] Americans are flooding onto the platform this week, [00:18] making it the number one app on the app store for two days straight. [00:21] Red Note was founded in 2013 as [00:23] an online shopping guide before pivoting to social media and e commerce. [00:27] Over 300 million people use the App, [00:30] which is filled with travel logs, [00:32] beauty tutorials, and animal videos. [00:34] Before this week, the few American users of Red Note [00:37] had been musicians looking to tap into the Chinese market, [00:40] like John Legend and Mariah Carey. [00:43] But this week, many TikTokers announced that due to the upcoming ban, [00:47] they were migrating to Red Note, as well. [00:49] Videos containing the hashtag TikTok refugee have been viewed 100 million times. [00:55] One user of this hash tag is Marcus Robinson, [00:58] a 29-year-old fashion designer who created a Red Note account to [01:01] share his thrifting adventures and promote his fashion brand, P 13. [01:06] Using Tik Tok since around 2020, [01:09] to find out that TikTok will be banned in the US, I was kind of upset. [01:15] So immediately, I wanted to download the app, get ahead of the curve. [01:19] I've probably had the app for about 36 hours now, [01:23] and it's already at 10,000 followers, [01:25] which is insane to me. [01:27] It is unlikely that Americans will settle on Red Note [01:30] or a similar Chinese app called Lemond in the long term. [01:33] Those apps face the same regulatory pressure that TikTok does. [01:37] However, the interest in these apps shows that Americans [01:39] are frustrated with the ban they see as paternalistic. [01:42] Worry about TikTok's top American owned competitors like Instagram. [01:46] Looking for a new social media destination. [01:48] While Congress' bill from last year singles out TikTok and other bite dance apps, [01:53] it also regulates other foreign adversary controlled applications. [01:58] And so if Red Note gets popular enough, [02:00] it could be banned, too. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7207351/tiktok-refugees-us-red-note/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7207351/tiktok-refugees-us-red-note/"},"headline":"The Lure of Chinese App Red Note","datePublished":"2025-01-16T11:44:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-19T07:49:35.802Z","description":"There are good reasons why American 'TikTok refugees' are flocking to this app over others. 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