Language-learning app Duolingo has seen a surge in US users learning Mandarin. Photo: Shutterstock/SCMP
BEIJING (Business Insider via SCMP): 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 RedNote, also known as Xiaohongshu, 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 said they had seen a jump in US users learning Mandarin on their platforms recently.
Duolingo said it had seen roughly 216 per cent growth in new Mandarin learners in the US compared to this time last year.
The company said this was “a much bigger increase” than that of other languages, even when it came to some of its most popular offerings. Spanish, for example, saw just 40 per cent growth in the same period.
Duolingo also asked new users in a survey how they heard about the app, and said it had seen “a corresponding spike in people selecting ‘TikTok’ as their answer”.
Duolingo was the 18th most downloaded free app in Apple’s US App Store on Thursday.
Another language learning app, Estonia-based Drops, said it had seen an increase in Chinese-language learners too.
Frederik Cordes, general manager at Drops, said the app had 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.
A social media influencer in New York films a video for his RedNote account after leaving TikTok. Photo: Reuters
While the company recently added new features, Cordes believed “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, said 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 video, 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 all right,” the user captioned the video.
RedNote’s popularity is not 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, and President Joe Biden could grant a 90-day extension if there was “significant” progress on a deal.
President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office on Monday and supported banning TikTok in his first term, recently expressed interest in keeping the app operating in the US, saying he has “a warm spot in my heart for TikTok”. - Business Insider via SCMP
