- TikTok will be banned in the US on January 19 if parent company ByteDance fails to find a buyer before then.
- Based on download charts, American users appear to be migrating to the Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu.
- The ByteDance-owned platform Lemon8 has also gained traction recently.
In just a few years, TikTok has risen in popularity, amassing over a billion users globally. With increased popularity, however, comes rigorous scrutiny from regulatory bodies. Back in 2020, the American president pressured its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to find a US buyer. Given its large user base and how much personal data social media platforms collect, the government perceived its ties to China as a threat to national security. With TikTok resisting a US acquisition and the consequent ban swiftly approaching, American users have now started migrating to alternative mobile apps.
Per a Bloomberg report, Chinese Instagram clone Xiaohongshu (aka Little Red Book or RedNote) is currently the most downloaded free app on Apple’s App Store in the US. The application has similarly risen to the top 10 on Google’s Play Store for the first time.