Why some TikTok users are fleeing to RedNote, another Chinese social media app
The future of TikTok in the United States looks more uncertain than ever. With a potential ban just days away, angry TikTok users are looking for alternatives — and they’re not all turning to American platforms like Instagram.
Instead, it is these users who label themselves.Refugee TikTokwant to pin it on the US government, which is trying to ban their favorite app on national security grounds. TikTok’s parent company is ByteDance, based in China. Therefore, the TikTok refugees primarily target social media platforms that are also operated by companies based in China.
An app called RedNote is one of the most famous options that are attracting attention. Perhaps that’s an understatement: As of this writing, RedNote is the number one app in both the iOS App Store and the Google Play Store.
What is RedNote?
RedNote’s Chinese name is Xiaohongshu, which translates to “Little Red Book.” (Also the name of the collection of writings by the Chinese political revolutionary Mao Zedong.) It is a social media app popular in its home country that was developed in 2013 by developer Xingyin Information Technology. It is similar but not an exact replica of TikTok.
Like TikTok, RedNote offers short videos that you can scroll through endlessly. But in addition to videos, the app also lets you create collaborative “boards” and even shop on the in-app marketplace – although I’m not sure what the shipping costs would be for buying used furniture from around the world. Ultimately, it’s a social media experience that the U.S. government probably didn’t expect would harbor angry Americans.
Of course, what draws the crowds are RedNote’s TikTok-like short videos. I downloaded the app to see what all the fuss was about.
What data does RedNote ask for during installation?
As for privacy and security, the app scrapes your device ID, and developer Xingin may use it to track you across other apps and websites. That’s not great, but it’s not unusual either: For context, TikTok also tracks your device ID as well as your email address and phone number – two data points that RedNote doesn’t track. RedNote also collects other data points directly linked to you, including your purchases, search history, user ID and contacts. Finally, the app collects a number of data points that are not directly linked to you, including your advertising data, product interaction, rough location, product interaction, precise location, physical address, name, phone number, photos or videos, audio data, customer support information, user content, crash data and Performance data.
It’s worth noting again that many apps ask for data points like this, both linked and unlinked to your identity. It is your choice what you would like to offer and you must always take measures to prevent certain data from your device from entering the app. For example, you can use a VPN to mask your location and device ID, or disable your app location settings entirely; Create an account with Apple and use Hide My Email to protect your email address from the app. Turn off access to photos and videos for the app, except for specific images and clips that you want to share. and block the app’s access to your contacts if you’d rather find your friends there individually.
What it’s like to use RedNote as an English speaker
As I scroll through the app, for the most part it looks like TikTok meets the Instagram Explore page. In fact, RedNote’s main feed is called “Explore,” a grid layout with various videos for you to watch. Tap one and it will play. Scroll down and you can watch another video. If you’ve ever used a short video platform before, you’ll get the gist pretty quickly. In fact, there is a dedicated Trending tab that represents your basic short video experience. Of course, there are some unique features of RedNote: When you pinch the interface, you empty the interface to focus on the video at hand. If you long-press, you’ll find a number of additional options, including “Auto-scroll” in case hand-scrolling becomes too much.
Overall, this is a short video app that anyone who has watched TikTok, Instagram Reels, or YouTube Shorts can quickly understand – perhaps without actually reading much of the text written in it. Not only is the developer of this app based in China, but the primary language of the app itself is also reportedly Mandarin, meaning that most of the discourse is not in English. If, like me, you don’t speak a word of Chinese, you might miss something by scrolling through comments and captions in a language you don’t understand.
Of course, there are ways to translate elements of your ad, but that may not be necessary:
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As much buzz as RedNote is getting this week, it’s obviously nowhere near as popular as TikTok, even in China: The former has 300 million active userscompared to TikTok is one billion. But if TikTok is banned in the US next week, the app could lose its 170 million American users – at least the ones who do Do not use workarounds to keep the app alive. It will be interesting to see how RedNote continues to grow and whether that growth will in turn inspire the US government to try to ban it too. If the TikTok ban is successful, it’s not hard for a RedNote ban to become a reality too.
