With TikTok likely only days away from being banned in the US, the app’s users are pushing several previously little-known apps to the top of Apple and Google’s stores. . The app that seems to have benefited the most so far is a Chinese social media app called “RedNote” (“Xiaohongshu” meaning “little red book”).
The TikTok-like app for short videos is currently the number one app on Apple’s App Store and 34th on Google’s Play Store. RedNote is gaining popularity as many TikTok creators have started posting their experiences trying out the Chinese app. Meanwhile, on RedNote, many creators are sharing videos welcoming “TikTok refugees” to the service.
The app is set up very similar to TikTok, with the ability to vertically scroll through a feed of short-form videos based on your interests. Most of the app’s interface is in Chinese, so it can be a little confusing to navigate, but there are some helpful videos on TikTok that explain how to change the app’s language to English.
RedNote seems to have come out of nowhere, but the app has been popular in China for years. The more than 10-year-old app is seen as a challenger to ByteDance-owned Douyin and e-commerce giant Alibaba, which has about 300 million users, CNBC reports.
RedNote isn’t the only app being embraced by anxious TikTok users. Another ByteDance app, Lemon8, is also trending on both the Apple and Google stores, coming in at #2 and #1 respectively. But while TikTok itself has boosted the app from time to time, it seems likely that Lemon8 will face the same fate if the Supreme Court sides with the Biden administration.
Another video app called Flip, which bills itself as “where social meets shopping,” is also trending in both app stores. This app is brought to you by Los Angeles-based Humans, Inc. and features short videos and an in-app storefront. It currently ranks 14th on Google’s store and 4th on Apple’s store. The company was valued at more than $1 billion last year, according to Crunchbase.
Another app that appears to be benefiting from the impending TikTok ban is called ReelShort. The app’s name sounds like a play on Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts (both established TikTok clones), but the app seems to be more of a streaming platform than a TikTok clone. The app includes bite-sized clips of long “movies” with odd titles like “The Heiress Who Blacklisted Her Husband” and “In Love With Alpha.” ReelShort is #7 on the App Store and #2 on Google Play.
It’s unlikely that any of these apps will remain popular for long, but the fact that so many relatively unknown apps rose to the top of the app store so quickly shows how much TikTok’s users and creators love them. This is another sign of how influential you can be. It also highlights that banning TikTok alone is not enough to curb the influence of Chinese tech companies in the United States.
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