this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2025
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Chinese social media app RedNote, known in China as Xiaohongshu, gained nearly 3 million U.S. users in one day earlier this week as a flood of self-proclaimed "TikTok Refugees" joined, according to new data from analytics firm Similarweb.

The Chinese-language app had about 3.4 million daily active users across both iOS and Android devices in the United States as of Monday, up from fewer than 700,000 the day prior, and around 300,000 the week prior, according to the Similarweb estimate.

The influx of users has been driven by a looming U.S. ban on TikTok, used by 170 million Americans, on national security concerns.

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. Reuters reported on Tuesday that more than 700,000 new users had joined the app in only two days.

Meanwhile, U.S. usage of TikTok declined ahead of the ban, down 2.1% week over week to about 82.2 million daily active users, Similarweb said.

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[–] [email protected] 64 points 6 months ago (6 children)

This is the first time americans are talking directly to chinese people en masse like this, no? The state department must be scrambling to get things in order. I don't think they expected the ban to backfire this bad lol

Wonder how long it'll last before it's closed off.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 6 months ago (7 children)

For many Chinese, this is also their first time talking to Americans. There are a ton of stories of them asking us if school shootings and medical bankruptcy are real or if it is just CCP anti-US propaganda. It is gut wrenching when we have to tell them that all the terrible things they have heard about the US are not only true, but worse than they imagine

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago

If you asked an American if we use child labor they would say “of course not!” but we keep mysteriously finding kids in meat packing plants and auto manufacturing plants and farms and….

My point is that just because the average citizen doesn’t know about bad things doesn’t make the bad things non-existent.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago (5 children)

Now I don't know what to believe.

I guess I should look at all the foreigners who think the US is some lawless wasteland and not be surprised Americans have similar misconceptions about other nations.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 6 months ago

Chinese Rednote users actually seem to have a relatively utopian view of the US. I'm seeing alot of posts asking if it's true that most Americans can afford to own a house and being corrected by americans in the comments; stuff like that.

Also they really like Luigi Mangione lol, even before americans came into the app.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago (3 children)

When you consider the school shootings, mass shootings, insane medical debt, and the fact that we have 8x the traffic fatality rate per capita of many developed nations, etc, I don't blame people for seeing the US as being a lawless dumpster fire.

If you disagree, next time you are out driving try to estimate how many drivers actually follow the law (drive below the speed limit, stop at crosswalks, slow down even more when visibility is poor or there are pedestrians or children nearby, etc).

Also, how many people drive small cars that are cleaner and safer for our communities vs giant Wankpanzers? People who are willing to make our cities more polluted and more dangerous for everyone overall just to make themselves slightly safer are morally bankrupt even if they technically follow the law they don't value the spirit of the law.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 6 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Just so you know, PRC is not a very inclusive place. Have a look at this article for more info.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Yeah they have a long way to go like most of the world; wish they'd just copy Cuba and the GDR on that.

Also you'd be better served with a specific documentary like this one instead of just lazily linking to wikipedia.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago (1 children)

A crowd sourced encyclopedia is only as trustworthy as the editors that control the page. I wouldn't trust wikipedia for anything to do with geopolitics or current affairs any more than I would trust any other mainstream media source.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago (1 children)

That’s why encyclopedia’s list their sources?

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[–] Arcturus 30 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Looks like they're starting to geolock some users, so americans mostly see posts/comments made from the US

Can't people just not be racist

[–] [email protected] 30 points 6 months ago (1 children)

At least the chuds are screeching though lol

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago (1 children)

no, it's literally rednote: as in the name the official company chose

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago

even then, based

[–] [email protected] 29 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The consent machine is pulling triple shifts to convince people this is dangerous, and some people even on this site have so thoroughly doomer-pilled themselves that they can't see the positives. I've been on there a lot this week and there is a real cultural exchange taking place, a lot of people asking questions about what it's really like to live in each country. Just in my little slice I've seen dozens of comments from USians expressing that they are surprised to learn the reality of life in China and that they feel they have been deliberately mislead.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The consent machine is pulling triple shifts to convince people this is dangerous

seeing it nakedly displayed live on colbert, the daily show, and kimmel was mind blowing to me; are they panicking?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

I'll look around to see if I can find those show segments online, but as for 'are they panicking?', mass media has a vested interest in influencing public opinion (that's effectively the only reason a private business bothers with news) and therefore control over public opinion. If the people who own the show and the channel give orders, the writers and actors probably won't risk getting fired. (oh, and obligatory quick clip to demonstrate what ownership looks like, for those who haven't seen it: "This Is Extremely Dangerous to Our Democracy")

So, with that in mind, recall the reactions of almost all mass media to the UnitedHealthcare assassination: consistent critique and denouncement. Surely this wasn't how all the news anchors felt, given how positive general opinion was! The people with ownership and executive power over these media channels obviously don't want the idea of citizens shooting the dangerously rich and powerful to get popular, so we saw their ideas echoed in all the news.

Compare that to here: media channels outside of China don't really want that counter-narrative to gain traction. It goes against their inherent interest of influencing public opinion, it's a competitor which all the biggest media companies can agree to call bad news. So I have no doubt this unexpected and surprising turn would make them panic.

edit: the clips I found from Colbert and The Daily Show were a surprisingly mixed bag. For example, this Daily Show clip comes off more as a satirical jab at the US than any panic.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Honestly since I've learned about how the Chinese people seem to be taking it and really like the interaction with "us" I've been more interested in checking out weibo. That seems more similar to this and is more about communicating instead of pictures and videos of specific topics.

Just can't make an account for some reason lol keep getting errors in Chinese even though I'm using the international site lol

[–] [email protected] 20 points 6 months ago

Yeah seems like Rednote is specifically centered around lifestyle and art while Weibo and Baidu are for general use

[–] [email protected] 22 points 6 months ago

Not for me but seems like a win overall? People are generally far less willing to hurt/fight people they know well compared to some nebulous concept of a nation. If American and Chinese people get to know eachother in a social setting it can only be a good thing.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago (1 children)

DON’T 👏 INSTALL 👏 小红书 — It gave me third degree Havana syndrome, which my health insurance won’t cover.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago

If the CIA agents in Havana don't get Cuban healthcare benefits, they should just quit.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The saddest downvotes are the “shoot the messenger” downvotes. I find this fact inconvenient so

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

i need to figure out how to make the rick & morty "your boos mean nothing to me; i've seen what makes you cheer" meme more accessible somehow for this exact reason. lol

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

Isn't that similar to how Americans and Russians were interested in knowing more about each other during Cold War?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

US people once again realizing that they are not the center of the world

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