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A growing number of TikTok US users are learning Chinese on Duolingo amid the adoption of a Chinese social app Called RedNote Before the TikTok ban. The US law, set to take effect on January 19, If not stopped by The Supreme Court will see TikTok removed from the US App Store and stop the app from working on users’ devices unless they Install a VPN client.
But instead of trying to work around the ban, More than 700 million TikTok users The social video platform moved to RedNote (aka Xiaohongshu), prompting a surprising cultural exchange between citizens of the two countries — not to mention several requests for American users to help Chinese users with their English homework.
There are some TikTok refugees though Struggling with technical issues While others signed up for RedNote, and others were immediately booted for community violations, the move from one Chinese-owned app to another is intended to send a strong signal to the US government and TikTok competitors like Meta that there is demand. China creates the kind of social networking experience that US companies have only been able to emulate.
The move also serves as a pulse check on whether US users are worried about Chinese companies collecting their personal data for nefarious uses — a key factor that led to TikTok’s ban in the first place. (As it turns out, not many, as this migration shows.)
However, since Shanghai-based Xiaohongshu/RedNote is designed for a Chinese audience, the app’s default language is Mandarin Chinese. This prompted US users of the Duolingo language-learning app to take a crash course in Mandarin.
According to Duolingo, the app, saw a roughly 216% increase in new Mandarin learners in the US compared to this time last year, with a sharp spike in mid-January as RedNotes began to take off. Also, the company reported that in its “How did you hear about us” survey that new users are prompted to answer, it is seeing a similar spike in people selecting “TikTok” as their response.
“Oh so now you’re learning Mandarin,” the company jokes In an X post On Tuesday it posted a video on TikTok promoting the use of its app for learning Chinese. The short video shows the company’s green owl mascot at an airport heading to China covered with text that reads “Me because I want to move to China and learn Mandarin on Duolingo.” The video currently has half a million likes. Another recent video focused on teaching Mandarin phrases to “TikTok refugees” has over 620,000 likes.
According to App Intelligence provider data AppfiguresConsumer demand for Duolingo’s language learning courses has also influenced the app’s install base.
The firm reported that Duolingo’s app saw a 36% increase in US downloads across the App Store and Google Play as of January 3 — an early sign that users may try out a variety of Chinese social apps before joining RedNote later in the month. .
A week ago, Duolingo ranked in the 40s for Top Apps (minus games) and Top Overall (including games). Right now, it is ranked #22 in Top Overall and #20 among Top Apps
