In the days leading up to a proposed US government ban on the social media platform TikTok, American users have turned to another Chinese-owned app, Xiaohongshu.

I picked my "interests" — all in Mandarin — based on vibes, and yet still Red Note seems to have me figured out already. My Explore page suggested videos from food creator Nick DiGiovanni, Cardi B and Lucky Blue Smith. (Note: Page verification is bound to be slow, so beware of fake celebrity accounts in the interim.)

As TikTok’s ban in the United States looms, hundreds of thousands of young people are reportedly flocking to a Chinese social media platform that a Pentagon-designated “Chinese military company” owns a substantial stake in.

With a TikTok U.S. ban looming, American users are downloading an alternative: Chinese-owned social app Xiaohongshu, aka "Red Note."

Marcus Robinson, a 29-year-old fashion designer, created a Red Note account to share his thrifting adventures and promote his clothing company, P-13. He previously had accrued 21,000 followers on TikTok, and estimates that 40% of his brand’s sales came from that app. “I thought I was going to keep building and make a living ultimately,” he says.

As Supreme Court justices ponder the future of TikTok in the United States, a growing number of American social media users have responded by moving to an unlikely alternative: Xiaohongshu, a hugely popular social media app in China.

Chinese social apps Xiaohongshu and Lemon8 have soared to the top two spots on Apple's iPhone charts ahead of the U.S.'s impending TikTok ban.

The data suggests an even larger shift to RedNote by U.S. users this week than was previously known, explaining its dramatic rise to the top of U.S. app store download rankings. R