Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Tech News

Chinese social media app RedNote tops App Store chart ahead of TikTok ban

Photo Illustration by Sheldon Cooper/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

RedNote, the Chinese social media app also known as Xiaohongshu, rose to the number one spot on the Apple App Store as a US ban closes in on TikTok. The app offers a mix of pictures, short-form videos, and text posts across “follow,” “explore,” and “nearby” feeds.

A cursory scroll through RedNote’s Explore page shows English-language posts scattered among those written in Chinese. Many American users call themselves “TikTok refugees” in videos, while others write in text posts that they’re in search of a new community because of the potential TikTok ban. Some are even asking questions to Chinese users, such as “What are some popular memes in China?”


Screenshot: The Verge

RedNote, which launched in 2013 as a shopping-focused app, now has more than 300 million monthly active users and surpassed $1 billion in profit last year, according to Bloomberg.

Last week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments over whether to uphold the law that will ban TikTok or force its China-based owner, ByteDance, to sell it to an American company. The Supreme Court has until January 19th to issue a decision.

TikTok users may be flocking to RedNote now, but the ban also implicates other Chinese-owned apps, including RedNote, WeChat, and the other apps run by ByteDance like Lemon8 and CapCut.

You May Also Like

Tech News

Illustration: The Verge Meta announced last week that it would be ditching fact-checkers in favor of X-like Community Notes, and self-described “leaker” Alessandro Paluzzi...

Tech News

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images After the Supreme Court heard oral arguments over a law that could ban TikTok, it looks...

Business

Boeing handed over 348 airplanes in 2024, about a third fewer than it did a year earlier as the aerospace giant struggled with a crisis after a...

Tech News

The company hasn’t been back in the US TV market for long, but the Z95B OLED proves that Panasonic can hang with Sony, LG,...