The threat of TikTok going dark in the US appears to have compelled some Americans to start learning Mandarin as they look to communicate on a rival Chinese app.
Many Americans are joining Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote, as a potential TikTok ban looms in the US. As they hop from TikTok to RedNote, some of the so-called “TikTok refugees” are learning Mandarin to bridge the language divide on the Chinese app.
Language learning apps Duolingo and Drops told BI they’ve seen a jump in US users learning Mandarin on their platforms recently.
“oh so NOW you’re learning mandarin,” Duolingo joked in a tweet Tuesday.
oh so NOW you’re learning mandarin
— Duolingo (@duolingo) January 14, 2025
However, the spike in interest is real, according to the company.
Duolingo told BI it’s seen roughly 216% growth in new Mandarin learners in the US compared to this time last year. The company says this is “a much bigger increase” than that of other languages, even when it comes to some of its most popular offerings. Spanish, for example, saw just 40% growth in the same period.
Duolingo also asked new users in a survey how they heard about the app, and said it’s seen “a corresponding spike in people selecting ‘TikTok’ as their answer.”
Duoling was the 18th most downloaded free app in Apple’s App Store on Thursday.
Another language learning app, Estonia-based Drops, said it has seen an increase in Chinese-language learners too.
Frederik Cordes, general manager at Drops, told BI the app has welcomed “three times as many users learning Chinese during the past few days and five times more US-based users learning Chinese” than what it expected based on the previous two weeks.
While the company has recently added new features, Cordes believes “the current spikes do indicate there are external factors with strong contributions to installs.”
Noël Wolf, a cultural expert from Babbel, which does not offer Chinese, told BI that the influx of Americans to RedNote “marks an unprecedented level of direct cultural exchange facilitated by language learning and communication at a scale we’ve never seen before.”
In one TikTok, a user pointed to a cat before saying in Chinese, “Hello, this is my cat. I am learning Mandarin. This is day one.”
“Me after literally 2 hours on RedNote,” the person captioned the video.
A second TikTok featured another user speaking Chinese, with the text overlay on the video reading, “Trying to learn Chinese to be a more respectful RedNote user.”
“I hope this came out alright,” the user captioned the video.
I hope this all came out right
And it turns out RedNote’s popularity isn’t just driving some Americans to learn Chinese. As new users flood the app from the US, some of RedNote’s Chinese users are learning English from Americans new to the app.
More than 700,000 new users joined Xiaohongshu in two days, Reuters reported, citing a person close to the company. While the growth is notable, that would represent a fraction of TikTok’s 170 million US users.
For now, TikTok’s future in the US remains up in the air.
TikTok could be banned from US app stores from Sunday under a law that would require it to divest from its current owner, Chinese company ByteDance. The Supreme Court is currently reviewing TikTok’s appeal.
There are some potential US buyers who could swoop in to prevent the ban, though, and President Biden could grant a 90-day extension if there’s “significant” progress on a deal.
President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office Monday and supported banning TikTok in his first term, has recently expressed interest in keeping the app operating in the US, saying he has “a warm spot in my heart for TikTok.”
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