A few weeks ago, I opened my go-to Chinese social media app, RedNote, expecting my usual content, only to be surprised by a flood of posts and comments in English. Days later, I saw headlines that DeepSeek, a Chinese AI app, had surpassed ChatGPT as the most downloaded free app on the US iOS App Store. Something was changing; US consumers were engaging with Chinese apps in a way that hadn’t been seen before.
“Over three million American users migrated to RedNote, dubbing themselves, ‘TikTok refugees’.”
The shift started with the potential TikTok ban in the US. After the Supreme Court ruled that the short-form video app didn’t comply with the law, TikTok – which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance – had until 19 January to be sold to a government-approved buyer. This was due to concerns that ByteDance might share user data with the Chinese government or influence American users through the app. The decision was unprecedented – it was the first time the United States had ever banned a social media site, and the internet went into a frenzy in response.
Ultimately, the ban lasted a mere 12 hours, lifting after President Donald Trump signed an executive action delaying the enforcement of the ban by 75 days. However, in the time that TikTok ‘went dark’, over three million American users migrated to RedNote instead of sticking to familiar platforms like Instagram and Facebook, dubbing themselves, ‘TikTok refugees’. Released in 2013, RedNote initially served as a space for users to review fashion and beauty products, but over time, the platform expanded by introducing video sharing, live streaming, and an e-commerce function that allows users to sell products and monetise their content. As RedNote content creator William Wang described to Sky News: “RedNote is a mix of Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok.”
Until early January this year, most people outside of China seemed largely unaware of the app, due to its Chinese-language exclusivity. However, within China, it was anything but under the radar. By 2024, RedNote had grown to over 300 million monthly active users who were highly engaged with the content, and the company was valued at approximately $17 billion. Backed by Chinese tech giants Tencent and Alibaba, it also attracted investments from leading venture capital firms, including DST Global, HongShan (formerly Sequoia China), Hillhouse Investment, Boyu Capital, and CITIC Capital – two of which are also investors in TikTok.
When these so-called ‘TikTok refugees’ appeared on the Chinese-speaking app in their millions, RedNote adapted quickly by improving its English-language support and promoting cross-cultural interactions between American and Chinese users. As reported in The Guardian, it was the first time many RedNote users had interacted with Americans online, with younger Americans helping their Chinese counterparts with English homework, while Chinese users taught the newcomers internet slang. It opened up the possibility for true cultural exchange and demonstrated that the dissonance lay between politicians, not people, and that, in fact, the gameplay between governments was blocking the opportunity to use the inherently ‘social’ technology to learn and connect.
“Millions of users are embracing the cultural and technological exchange that platforms like RedNote and DeepSeek enable.”
This politicisation of technology has spread wider than RedNote and TikTok, as Chinese artificial intelligence company, DeepSeek, also came up against its own roadblocks in the US. Sanctions were put in place to restrict China’s access to Nvidia chips in an effort to limit its AI advancement, but despite this, after the company released its first free chatbot app on 10 January, it had overtaken ChatGPT as the most downloaded free app on the US iOS App Store by the end of the month.
But why has DeepSeek been so successful? Its key advantage lies in cost-efficiency. While its R1 model delivers responses comparable to OpenAI’s GPT-4o and o1 versions, it was trained at a fraction of the cost – $6 million compared to OpenAI’s $100 million for GPT-4 in 2023 – and requires only one-tenth of the computing power of similar large language models. Moreover, DeepSeek made its generative AI algorithms, models, and training details open-source, which allowed for unrestricted use, modification, and further development.
Although it has been hailed as a breakthrough, and industry experts have called it “the first shot in a global AI arms race” and “a new era of AI brinkmanship”, DeepSeek – like TikTok – has faced regulatory challenges. The US Navy banned its use due to security and ethical concerns, and on 30 January, Italy’s Data Protection Authority (the Garante) urgently prohibited the processing of Italian users’ data on the platform.
These sanctions felt familiar to me. Growing up in China, I experienced a vastly different digital landscape compared to the West. There was no Google, Facebook, or Instagram, instead, the Chinese government enforced what became known as the ‘Great Firewall’, a combination of legislative measures and technological barriers designed to regulate the domestic internet. This not only controlled the flow of information but also fostered the growth of local tech businesses. I can’t help but wonder if what’s happening now in the West, mirrors these actions, and is perhaps aiming for similar results.
“It is mind-blowing, then, that when digital apps are becoming so powerful, one the size of TikTok – which had, at a minimum, over 100 million US users – was able to simply ‘go dark'”
In a world where economic influence is increasingly overshadowing military might, transparency and free speech are reshaping policy and productivity, and consumers are finding ways to take control of their digital choices despite government intervention, we are witnessing a profound shift. While authorities continue to stress data security concerns – undoubtedly a crucial issue – millions of users are embracing the cultural and technological exchange that platforms like RedNote and DeepSeek enable.
However, as this goes to print, developments continue to unfold. Social media apps and AI are becoming increasingly more political – Elon Musk, who has become a somewhat unexpected central figure of US politics, attempted to buy OpenAI this week while Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta was also accused of filtering content to be more in line with Trump’s views. It is mind-blowing then, that when digital apps are becoming so powerful, one the size of TikTok – which had, at a minimum, over 100 million US users – was able to simply ‘go dark’ at, what seemed like, the press of a government button. Almost as telling, is the decision from so many Americans – despite the government’s reasons for banning TikTok in the first place – to sign up to another Chinese social media app, and further, to continue downloading apps like DeepSeek. For consumers, it seems, the political moves and countermoves by governments are at least subsidiary, if not inconsequential, to their freedom of choice.
This situation is constantly evolving, with new tariffs between China and the US now in place and TikTok continuing its attempts to comply with the law, so who knows what the landscape will look like in even a week’s time. But what I can say for certain, is that whatever direction it takes, the world will be watching with interest.
