TikTok shutdown in U.S. causes unexpected phenomenon

Just before the law banning the use of TikTok in the U.S. goes into effect on January 19 (unless the Supreme Court stops it), the Chinese social video platform RedNote (also known as Xiaohongshu) has racked up more than 700,000 new users in just two days.

The new users, American "TikTok refugees", created surprising encounters with Chinese users of the social network - and even made some requests from users Chinese for help with their English homework.

The transition from one Chinese app to another sends a clear message to the US government and potential competitors like Meta: there is a demand for the social networking experiences that China produces, and which American companies have only succeeded in imitating.

According to data from the language learning application Duolingo, the company recorded a 216% increase in the number of new learners of Mandarin (the official language of China) in the US compared to the same period last year - with a sharp jump in mid-January when the use of RedNote began to gain momentum.

On Monday, the app hosted a live chat titled "TikTok Refugees", in which more than 50,000 American and Chinese users participated. The veteran Chinese users received their American counterparts with curiosity, and they exchanged impressions on topics such as food and youth unemployment.

"Ah, so now you're learning Mandarin," Duolingo jokingly tweeted on the X platform on Tuesday. A video published yesterday on Tiktok, which focused on learning Chinese phrases "for Tiktok refugees", has currently received more than 867,000 likes.

* Yisrael Hayom contributed to this article.