Unlikely winners are emerging from the TikTok saga in the US.
Everyone thought that Meta would benefit from a TikTok ban, but its shares have actually flopped in the past month.
Why? Because it appears that some TikTok users are trying to tank Meta’s stock after its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, pushed to ban the TikTok app in the US. Some are even calling for a boycott of Meta apps like Facebook, Instagram and Threads. Yikes.
Instead, TikTok users in the US are going from one Chinese short-video app that’s being banned over national security concerns in the US… to other Chinese short-video apps. 🤷
Downloads of these apps are soaring. Here are some of the most popular alternatives:
Rednote
RedNote, also known as Xiaohongshu, topped downloads on the Apple App Store on Thursday.
Xiaohongshu, which literally translates to “Little Red Book”, was founded in 2013. Like most social-media apps, RedNote thrives on user-generated content.
According to Statista, the app had 218.11 million users as of September 2024. More than 700,000 new users joined RedNote in only two days, according to Reuters, which cited an unnamed source.
But the RedNote app is in Mandarin, not English, so it’s unlikely to emerge as a serious alternative for America’s self-described “TikTok refugees.”
Watch: Is the US TikTok Ban an Attack on Free Speech?
Lemon8
Lemon8 is owned by the same Chinese company as TikTok, ByteDance. Lemon8 brands itself as a “lifestyle community focused app powered by TikTok,” both in the App Store and the Google Play store. It is a photo-based app that takes a leaf out of Instagram and Pinterest’s playbooks.
While it was launched in Asian markets in 2020, Lemon8 only gained traction in the US more recently, when TikTok influencers began promoting it.
Given its link to ByteDance, Lemon8 could face the same regulatory hurdles with US authorities. According to Statista, the app has 8.6 million monthly active users on iOS gadgets and 7.6 million on Android gadgets worldwide.
Clapper
Founded by Edison Chen in 2020, Clapper’s outfit is 50-strong and is based in Dallas, Texas.
According to data provided to MONIIFY, Clapper claims that 2 million new users signed up in the last two weeks, and it currently has 5 million monthly active users.
Appealing to a more mature audience than TikTok, Clapper is free to use with no ads. Instead, Clapper takes 35% of earnings from creators.
Flip
Flip is another app stateside that combines social media and e-commerce. The company is based in California and was founded in 2019 by Jonathan Ellman and Noor Agha.
It has attracted attention from well-known investors, including Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Capital Ventures. According to its website, more than 5,000 brands use Flip’s platform.
Read more: Sell or die: The clock is ticking for TikTok
The TikTok void
Can these alternatives replicate TikTok’s success?
It’s not just regular users that are in a tizzy. Content creators and e-commerce shops that rely on TikTok for income are asking their followers to subscribe to their channels on other platforms.
For now, there are three scenarios that may play out: a blackout, a delay on the ban or a buyout. Either way, the social media landscape in the US will not be the same again.
Edited by Azar Zaidi and Victor Loh. Graphics by Alia Chughtai. If you have any tips, ideas or feedback, please get in touch: talk-to-us@moniify.com
