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January 15, 2025·3 min read
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Gen Z weighs in

RedNote Opens Its Arms to a Wave of ‘TikTok Refugees’

Instagram Reels is the TikTok replacement that feels like being asked to come out of your room to greet your parent's company—something you'll do but with a sense of reluctance and discomfort. Then a new app ascends from the sky! Enter: RedNote, known as Xiaohongshu in China, which has just welcomed roughly half a million ‘TikTok refugees’.

RedNote is a blend of Pinterest and TikTok, but the real question is: What does the generation that brought TikTok to the mainstream think of its possible replacement?

“I literally just downloaded it. I think the overt rebellion and irony in downloading a Chinese app because of US censorship is hilarious. I guess I just want to be a part of it.”

“I downloaded it last night! Mostly to join in as a form of rebellion I suppose towards the US for trying to ban an overall harmless app because of the company that owns it, but also because – after making an account and checking everything out – it seems like a nice place!”

“Even if the TT ban doesn't go through, I plan on keeping it in hopes of learning a new language and joining a new community.”

Here’s what else young people across the internet are saying: (This is the part of the newsletter you screenshot and share in Slack)

  • People with larger follower counts are herding their followers to YouTube and, of course, will end up using YouTube Shorts—but it doesn’t feel primed for doomscrolling.

  • Everyone who didn’t make a YouTube channel in D.P. or B.P. (during the pandemic or before the pandemic) is feeling salty.

  • Creators are mass ordering from the TikTok Shop affiliate program, because "if TikTok disappears, then isn’t this just a bunch of free stuff I don’t have to promote?"

  • A return to Instagram Reels will begrudgingly happen, but at least the 'post this on Instagram Reels' trolls will die.

  • Instagram Stories are about to get a lot longer, and Close Friends will get spicier.

  • The case for sh*tposting on Instagram just got a lot stronger.

  • They gladly would sacrifice Instagram for TikTok.

Example from TikTok

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