Barely 12 hours after being pulled offline, TikTok announced it was restoring service in the United States.
Source: TikTok
On the day of his inauguration, U.S. President Trump also posted on social media that he planned to issue an executive order granting TikTok an extended grace period to find an approved buyer before a permanent ban takes effect.
Source: Truth Social
However, after all this chaos, the American people are saying: we're not going back to TikTok, we're staying on Xiaohongshu!
Source: Xiaohongshu
TikTok Ban Triggers Mass User Migration
When I opened Xiaohongshu last Monday morning, I was completely floored.
What’s going on? Why is everyone suddenly speaking foreign languages??
And all posting the same message: “Bye, TikTok”?
Source: Xiaohongshu
Then, Xiaohongshu’s Google search data skyrocketed like crazy. It even shot to number one on the U.S. App Store, becoming the most downloaded app of the day.
Source: App Store
Following the clues, it turns out these newcomers are exactly the former American TikTok users.
They jokingly call themselves “TikTok Refugees,” and many directly put “TikTok Refugee” in their profile bios, adopting a polite “sorry for the intrusion” attitude as they try to blend into the Xiaohongshu community.
Source: Xiaohongshu
All this started back with TikTok’s predicament in the U.S.
Last April, President Biden signed a bill forcing ByteDance to divest the U.S. operations of its app TikTok, or face a ban in the country — the so-called “sell or ban” law.
Then-President Trump expressed willingness to save TikTok, but his inauguration fell just a day after the ban’s effective date, and to top it off, the U.S. Supreme Court had just rejected TikTok’s appeal against the law last Friday.
Against this uncertain backdrop, a huge number of TikTok users were forced to seek new “safe havens,” and Xiaohongshu became their first choice.
Some might wonder, why Xiaohongshu, of all platforms?
The ban’s original intention was to push users toward American-owned platforms like Instagram or YouTube. But the TikTok refugees weren’t having it. To protest, they resolutely chose an alternative Chinese social platform that could be registered with a local phone number — Xiaohongshu.
Reports say over 700,000 new users flooded into Xiaohongshu during this period. By January 16, the “tiktok refugee” hashtag had racked up nearly 57 million views and 810,000 discussions. And the “tiktokrefugee” hashtag topped 800 million views and 10 million discussions.
Source: Xiaohongshu
Even after TikTok came back, many American users said they weren’t going back, because the Xiaohongshu community atmosphere is “warm and friendly” — some even said, “Chinese netizens are already my family.”
Witnessing Cultural Collisions on Xiaohongshu
Xiaohongshu’s core is about sharing recommendations and daily life — a social platform for genuine experiences.
As more and more foreigners joined, with language barriers and unfamiliarity, a subtle chemistry bubbled up between TikTok refugees and native Xiaohongshu users, creating a more diverse ecosystem on the platform.
“Do you have a cat? Let us see!”
With the flood of “TikTok refugees” into Xiaohongshu, some cat lover told foreign users that to become a member of our domestic internet community and gain recognition, you need to “pay a cat tax” — show everyone your cat.
This idea quickly spread, and foreign netizens immediately complied, posting photos of their cats to pay the cat tax.
Source: Xiaohongshu
Netizens without cats contributed whatever they had at home. Soon, “dog tax,” “rabbit tax,” “horse tax,” and even “kangaroo tax” were all being submitted.
Source: Xiaohongshu
“Come on, let’s compare notes”
Simultaneously with the “pet tax,” another direct “compare notes” activity unfolded. In this wave of “cross-checking,” Chinese netizens and “TikTok refugees” each described their real lives.
Nothing sparked more curiosity than salaries. A domestic user posted a text-and-image post asking, “What’s the average salary in the U.S.?” That note has since garnered over 2,000 replies — far exceeding typical survey sample sizes.
Source: Xiaohongshu
Not only did American netizens break down local salary situations, but professionals from various fields also shared their income structures and living costs.
A global “online cross-checking” trend ensued, with hot industries like law and investment banking joining the comparison spree.
Source: Xiaohongshu
Beyond salaries, many American netizens also wondered: how much does Chinese university tuition cost?
Source: Xiaohongshu
Chinese netizens warmly shared their tuition bills, and some even explained policies: no student in China drops out because they can’t afford tuition, thanks to interest-free student loans, and the better the university, the more government subsidies it receives.
The affordable tuition left American netizens shocked.
This transparent comparison not only sparked heated discussions among netizens but also made many reassess their own lives. Some joked that the cross-checks were getting ever more detailed, and if they kept going, the American people might really start a commotion.
“Help me with my homework, help me get a group-buy discount”
With so many genuine foreigners around, it was basically a free English tutor.
And so, Xiaohongshu instantly turned into a global version of “Homework Help.” Many students posted “help me” pleas, asking foreigners to assist with their English assignments, and enthusiastic foreign netizens stepped up to offer advice.
Source: Xiaohongshu
Even more amusingly, foreign netizens also reverse-requested help with math problems from Chinese netizens, bluntly admitting: “You guys are awesome at math, please teach me.”
Source: Xiaohongshu
Besides homework help, for Chinese netizens who were sick of begging “new friends” to help them get group-buy deals (“cut a cut”), the influx of foreign friends was an absolute godsend.
Some clever netizens even got foreigners to download Pinduoduo, enthusiastically guiding them on how to “help cut the price.”
Source: Xiaohongshu
This also piqued foreign netizens’ curiosity about what kind of app Pinduoduo really is, with some even posting: “Excuse me, is Pinduoduo a very famous app in China?”
Source: Xiaohongshu
As the topic heated up, many Chinese netizens patiently explained, and some foreigners even downloaded Pinduoduo and asked Chinese friends to “cut a cut” for them.
Meanwhile, various apps quickly sniffed out the cross-border traffic opportunity and jumped on the marketing bandwagon. Many found unexpected new paths toward globalization.
Source: Xiaohongshu
“Ask Me Anything”
Even more interestingly, Chinese netizens quickly tapped into a new value of these “TikTok refugees” — first-hand information about overseas life. So the popular foreign forum format AMA (Ask Me Anything) was also brought to Xiaohongshu by the foreigners.
One user claiming to be an undergrad at the University of Pennsylvania welcomed questions about applying to UPenn and life in the U.S.
Source: Xiaohongshu
Soon, thousands of queries flooded the comments, covering everything from application backgrounds to future career development, all answered clearly.
Not only UPenn friends showed up — students from Harvard, MIT, UCLA, and other popular schools also joined Xiaohongshu.
Source: Xiaohongshu
Even more impressively, someone directly posted a string of Chinese-English self-introductions and asked foreign netizens to help apply for a PhD or recommend suitable professors. In the comments, foreign friends offered tips and shared websites they commonly used when applying for PhDs.
Source: Xiaohongshu
Right now, this grand Sino-foreign “exchange event” is still ongoing.
As early as 2023, Japanese illustrators swarmed to Weibo out of disgust over Elon Musk’s crude Twitter overhaul, but that “migration” was more of an emotional protest, a flash in the pan that quickly faded.
Now, however, Xiaohongshu has drawn in vast numbers of TikTok users with its friendly community vibe and high interactivity. Some netizens sighed, as if we’ve traveled back to a “cyber Tang Dynasty” and dreamed a dream of a global village.
These seemingly simple interactions hold the most precious aspect of globalized exchange. Perhaps, amid fluctuating international situations, moments like this seem trivial. But in this moment, everyone can momentarily forget real-world uncertainties and break down barriers through more communication. If so, this “migration” has already been immensely meaningful.
As for what the future holds, let’s wait and see together.
