RedNote leans into app store ads as TikTok users look for alternative platforms

Creators and users mourning the expected end of TikTok are flocking to RedNote—and it looks like the company wants to keep the momentum going.

As of Friday, the Chinese social media app also known as Xiaohongshu, which topped Apple’s App Store charts this week, was running advertisements within both Apple’s App Store and the Google Play store. The platform was also advertising within Apple’s App Store when users searched for both TikTok and Lemon8, a different ByteDance-owned photo and video-sharing app.

The apparent advertising push comes as the curtain seems poised to (maybe, potentially) close on TikTok’s time in the US. According to the Pew Research Center, the platform is used by one-third of US adults. On Friday, the Supreme Court upheld a law that will ban the app in the US as soon as Sunday if ByteDance does not divest from its US operations.

While President-elect Donald Trump has indicated that, once he takes office, he may pursue some kind of deal or otherwise prevent the ban from going into effect, it’s unclear what exactly that might look like.

Seeing red: While many marketers have predicted a move to Meta platforms like Instagram and Facebook in the event of a TikTok ban, many TikTok creators and some users have resisted, instead turning to RedNote and engaging in an extremely online and meta cultural exchange. Since last week, RedNote downloads in the US were up more than 30x year over year according to data from the market intelligence company SensorTower.

By advertising, it appears that RedNote, owned by the Shanghai-based company Xingyin Information Technology, is seizing the moment.

It might not last. Earlier this week, creators told Marketing Brew that they don’t anticipate RedNote will be a long-term viable option, and while RedNote isn’t facing down a ban like TikTok is, one US official told CBS News that the platform could face the same fate.