Marcus Robinson, a 29-year-old fashion designer, created a Red Note account to share his thrifting adventures and promote his clothing company, P-13. He previously had accrued 21,000 followers on TikTok, and estimates that 40% of his brand’s sales came from that app. “I thought I was going to keep building and make a living ultimately,” he says.

With a TikTok U.S. ban looming, American users are downloading an alternative: Chinese-owned social app Xiaohongshu, aka "Red Note."

To show how little they care about TikTok’s ties to Beijing, people in the United States are downloading one of China’s most popular apps.