Education app Duolingo is reporting a spike in new Mandarin learners in the US as the country prepares to ban TikTok.
On X, Duolingo said: “Learning Mandarin out of spite? You are not alone.”
It said that they have seen "a ~216% growth in new Chinese (Mandarin) learners in the US” for the period of Dec 1, 2024 to Jan 13, 2025 compared to the same time last year.
Duolingo linked the spike to the looming TikTok ban on Jan 19, 2025, which the US government attributes to national security concerns.
On TikTok, users in the US have started saying goodbye to the platform and urging others to follow them on other sites.
They have also shared how they are downloading popular Chinese social networking and ecommerce app Xiaohongshu as a sign of protest against the ban.
As the app primarily features content in Mandarin, users who migrated there are also picking up the language for engagement. There have been claims of wholesome interactions on the app between new American and existing Chinese users.
On X, a user in a viral posting with over 6.8 million views, said Chinese people on Xiaohongsu have asked Americans to help them with their English homework.
According to South China Morning Post, one Chinese user welcoming new American users to the app, said they can "learn local Mandarin here instead of Duolingo".
TikTok can avoid the ban if its parent company, ByteDance, agrees to sell its US operations to a domestic entity.
However, Reuters reported that TikTok plans to shut down its US operations when the ban takes place, potentially affecting 170 million users in the US.
If banned, users opening the app will see a pop-up message directing them to a website providing information about the ban.
