The US moved to ban TikTok citing national security concerns arising from China. Ironically, ex-TikTokers are now flooding to more Chinese-owned apps.
With just days before TikTok is effectively banned in the US, users in the country are flocking to Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote, a Chinese-owned social networking and e-commerce platform, pushing the app to top spots on the US rankings of both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.
RedNote looks similar to TikTok, with short videos and photos posted by users displayed in a grid on the main page, and American users flocking to the app have largely been welcomed by their Chinese counterparts, creating a communal bridge between the two countries who otherwise have a tense political relationship with each other.
Xiaohongshu is owned by Xingyin Information Technology, a Shanghai-based company. It was founded in 2013 by Charlwin Mao Wenchao, who holds a master’s degree in business administration from Stanford and Miranda Qu Fang, who, according to Forbes, has a net worth of $1.3bn. As of the latest figures, Xiaohongshu is reported as having more than 200m monthly active users in China.
According to the World Economic Forum, the social networking platform has become a “leading gauge” of China’s business and consumption trends, hosting more than 170,000 brands on its platform, and cementing its spot as an important space for marketing in the country.
Moreover, along with Xiaohongshu, US TikTok users are also moving to Lemon8, another app owned by ByteDance, often described as a cross between Instagram and Pinterest. The app, which was launched by the TikTok owner in Japan in 2020, hit the US markets in early 2023. Current rankings place also the platform at the top spots next to Xiaohongshu where it sits at first place in the Google Play Store and at the second spot in the Apple Play Store in the US. Meanwhile, TikTok’s ranking has dipped to the 15th spot in Apple’s ranking in the country.
Statistics show that 37pc of TikTok users have purchased something they discovered through the app, pushing the app’s US ad revenue to nearly $10.5bn in 2024, and with the app scheduled to be banned in the country on Sunday (19 January) analysts predict that the ad spend by businesses on the app in the US will be largely reallocated to Meta-owned Instagram and Facebook.
According to the analyst eMarketer, Instagram will gain more than 22pc of TikTok’s reallocated ad spend in the country, closely followed by Facebook which will take 17.1pc and YouTube, earning more than 10pc of the reallocated ad spending.
TikTok’s US ban comes as a result of national security concerns raised by the country regarding ByteDance’s connection to the Chinese government and the possibility of it having access to American users’ data. Outgoing president Joe Biden signed the legislation into law last year, giving ByteDance nine months to divest from its US business or be banned from the country. However, with just days left for the ban to take place, the platform seems to have no plans for a sale yet.
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