“Thank you all for your attention and comments. The people here are very friendly!”
This is a message from a user with the ID Ugh on Xiaohongshu. This “TikTok refugee” from the United States had just posted his first video on Xiaohongshu less than ten hours ago and has already received nearly 30,000 likes and over 9,000 comments, giving him a taste of the traffic surge from one of China’s leading online communities.
Ugh is part of the large group of “TikTok refugees” that have flocked to Xiaohongshu from the United States in the past 48 hours. On January 19, 2025, the U.S. Congress’s ban on TikTok is set to take effect, rendering hundreds of millions of American users unable to download, update, or use the TikTok app normally. As the deadline looms, a large number of American users began searching the internet for TikTok alternatives, even coining the term “TikTok refugee.” It wasn’t long before they discovered Xiaohongshu, a Chinese community app that closely resembles TikTok.
Within just a few hours, the initiative to “go to rednote/xiaohongshu” exploded across the American internet, with numerous recommendation guides appearing on platforms like X, Facebook, and Reddit. One user named Roxie wrote, “The U.S. government wants to ban TikTok just because it’s a Chinese app, claiming it’s to protect our data. Well, we Americans will go to Xiaohongshu, a Chinese app headquartered in China!”
Xiaohongshu almost instantly climbed to the top of the U.S. App Store’s free chart, a position it has maintained at the time of writing. Meanwhile, native Xiaohongshu users suddenly found their homepage timelines taken over by these foreigners, with thousands of Americans enthusiastically interacting with Chinese friends through their posts. Most of the content was in English, but many were also trying to clumsily type in Chinese using translation apps, and some even started learning Chinese for the first time to send greetings across the ocean.
Startled by the sudden influx of TikTok refugees, Chinese Xiaohongshu users quickly adapted and began warmly engaging with the Americans. Some made jokes, others seriously answered questions from foreigners, and some even introduced community rules… creating a warm and harmonious atmosphere. Some Chinese users immediately recognized the “practical value” of the foreigner brigade and started asking native speakers to help with their English homework…
Facing this unexpected surge of popularity, Xiaohongshu officials have not yet made any statements, but back-end technical staff have been spotted working late into the night. An American netizen shared on X that the English version of Xiaohongshu optimized its English interface overnight. This move not only deeply moved the foreigners but also added to their dissatisfaction with their own apps. Many Americans said that it was only after coming to Xiaohongshu that they truly experienced what true internet freedom and prosperity look like. Can Xiaohongshu replace TikTok if it gets banned in the U.S.? It’s too early to tell. However, the “TikTok refugee” incident shows that American users are not biased against all Chinese apps.