How TikTok alternatives are competing for brands and creators—industry leaders break it down

The rush is on for U.S. TikTok users to find a new stomping ground as the viral app faces a ban in the states. This has led so-called “TikTok refugees” to discover the app Xiaohongshu, known as RedNote in the U.S., another Chinese-based app that even has some familiar fixtures, including accounts from popular social media brands such as Duolingo and Dr. Squatch. Xiaohongshu, which translates to “Little Red Book,” surged to the No. 1 free app on Apple’s App Store this week, propelled by those concerned about TikTok’s fate. RedNote, which was founded in 2013 and resembles a mix of Instagram and Pinterest, has already been popular in China, and some brands have built a presence there. Duolingo’s Duo the Owl has an account. Ad Age Tech Power List 2025 We’re looking for top digital innovators from agencies, brands, platforms, ad tech companies and tech startups Enter here But RedNote’s long-term potential in the U.S. is uncertain, and the app seems more like a fad for TikTok users frustrated by U.S. attempts to ban TikTok. The U.S. Supreme Court is reviewing the constitutionality of a law passed last year that would force China-based ByteDance to divest from TikTok—or risk the app being blocked on Jan. 19. TikTok has been in jeopardy before in the U.S., and moments of peril typically send social media users looking for new apps that ultimately have fleeting moments atop the app charts. “RedNote seems like a ‘spite’ move as opposed to true engagement,” said Navah Hopkins, specialist and public evangelist at Optmyzr, a digital marketing platform. The influx of U.S. transplants onto RedNote is a statement from disgruntled TikTok users, rather than a lasting migration, Hopkins said. The usual top platforms—YouTube Shorts, Meta Reels, Amazon’s connected TV—stand to gain the most, Hopkins said. “It will be easy for Google to pick up that business, especially with how well they’ve integrated e-commerce into the platform,” Hopkins told Ad Age, referring to YouTube Shorts. “Amazon gets a nod because of the huge infrastructure investments they’ve made on enabling smaller brands to monetize through video as well as their Twitch channel.” Still, the rise and fall of niche apps during this moment of crisis for TikTok is an important one. Brands and creators have become reliant on TikTok, which has 170 million users in the U.S. and a unique hold on Gen Z’s media consumption. TikTok has also transformed social commerce, helping products achieve virality and generate sales. If TikTok can maintain its operations in the U.S., it stands to generate about $11.2 billion in the U.S. this year, an 11% increase from 2024, according to WARC, the marketing data and analytics firm, which shared TikTok ad estimates with Ad Age. Brand and social media managers are having serious conversations this week about where to invest all that money if TikTok is ultimately banned. Also read: How marketers are preparing for TikTok’s future Meanwhile, platforms, new and established, are vying for the TikTok mantle, trying to make the most of any disruption to the popular rival. This week, Triller, the video app, re-emerged to make an appeal to TikTokers. Flip, a social commerce app, rose in rankings, as did the short-form video app Clapper. TikTok sister app Lemon8 app also was trending. On Tuesday, Substack, the creator and blogging monetization platform, attempted to capture potential TikTok castoffs, explaining how it has expanded livestreaming video and detailing how creators could migrate to the platform. Should the TikTok ban take effect, the platforms that attract the most creators will also determine which of these emergent platforms, if any, pull in the largest number of new users, said Holly Jackson, VP of influencer marketing innovation and insights at Traackr, the influencer marketing platform. Roughly three in five (61%) of Gen Z and millennial U.S. consumers said they would explore a new social platform if “an influencer they know and trust” begins posting, according to Traackr’s 2025 Influencer Marketing Impact Report. “It’s not out of the question for other platforms [beyond Instagram and YouTube] to rise up quickly, because audiences follow people, not necessarily the platforms,” Jackson said. “As much as the platform matters, the connection between creator and audience matters more.” More news: Snapchat creators promote the app in new ads Some creators have already begun setting up new accounts on these trending platforms. On Monday, Sarah Schauer, a comedy creator and podcaster who got her start on the now-defunct social media platform Vine, directed her 2.1 million TikTok followers to her newly launched RedNote account. She plans to use the platform alongside Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts to promote the upcoming launch of her new podcast “Schauer Thoughts” over the next few weeks, she told Ad Age. Unlike the shut-down Vine, where the six-second video limit made it hard to build a fan community, the TikTok ban would rock the large community Schauer has established on the platform, she said. “If TikTok were to end, I would be devastated because of the loss of community and information,” she said. “But what I would also be excited to see is the total transformation of the cultures of other social media apps. When Vine ended, it switched up the content of YouTube and Instagram. It really changed the cultural landscape of all the other platforms.” @sarahschauer LETS GOOOOO! I am on Rednote btw: sarahschauer gonna start posting there soon #tiktokban ♬ original sound - Sarah Schauer The online conversation around moving to entirely new social platforms rather than Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts speaks to the unique “cultural affinity” young consumers have for TikTok that would be difficult for other platforms to replicate, said Felipe Mendez, a coordinator at UTA Marketing’s Next Gen Practice. “It’s very clear that those platforms don’t fulfill the need that people get with TikTok,” he said. “TikTok offers something completely different than these other platforms. As much as they all kind of mimic each other, there’s a cultural difference with being on TikTok that is exciting and that people have loyalty to.” Marketers are watching the scramble among platforms with interest, but they also realize that many apps can pop for a limited time, and then fall off, according to Margot Dukes Eddy, partner and head of social at ad firm Acadia. “I am now acting as if there will be a [TikTok] ban to be the best steward of that marketing budget and overall client relationship,” Dukes Eddy wrote in a LinkedIn post on Tuesday. “The good news? When you have worked in social media since 2013, you’re used to change. We have been at this for a decade plus. There are always shifts in attention.” Here is a look at some of the lesser-known apps making a run for TikTok’s audiences and what brands should know about them. RedNote RedNote rocketed up the charts of Apple’s App Store over the weekend after a wave of self-proclaimed “TikTok refugees” began to flood the platform. While much of the content on the platform is currently spoken and written in Mandarin, English-speaking users are reposting their TikTok videos on the app (occasionally with the addition of Mandarin subtitles or captions) and extending TikTok trends and TikTok-viral brands such as Rhode to RedNote. But TikTok users flocking to RedNote, another Chinese-owned platform (Xingin Information Technology), is more likely an “act of rebellion” against the U.S. government’s argument that TikTok presents a threat to national security than an enduring shift in the social media landscape, said Will Trowbridge, founder and CEO of creative agency Saylor. @chrispix_9 #rednote #tiktokrefugee #tiktokrefugees #mandarin #fyp #whereslatrell ♬ original sound - Terry Crews “This whole RedNote thing is just a flash in the pan—it’s going to go away,” he said, pointing to the aftermath of India’s similar TikTok ban in 2020, which drove many TikTok users and creators to Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts rather than entirely new platforms. As of this writing, RedNote has held onto its rank as the most-downloaded free app on Apple’s app store since Monday, and the hashtag #RedNote has appeared across nearly 100,000 videos on TikTok. Duolingo, one of the most popular brands on TikTok, launched an account on RedNote last May and has since amassed over 400,000 followers on the platform. The brand nodded to the surging U.S. popularity of the app with a post on X, formerly Twitter, yesterday, joking “oh so NOW you’re learning mandarin.” oh so NOW you’re learning mandarin— Duolingo (@duolingo) January 14, 2025 “Our goal on social media is to entertain our audiences, regardless of platform. We’ll continue to do just that and go to where our fans are,” said Duolingo Chief Marketing Officer Manu Orssaud in an email. “We feel confident that whatever happens to TikTok in the U.S., we’ll continue to find success with our social marketing strategy because we’ve invested in building global TikTok accounts and building our presence on other platforms.” Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs Lemon8 Lemon8, another ByteDance-owned social platform, has followed closely behind RedNote in the Apple app store charts. The platform is structured similarly to Pinterest, with a main feed of content that users can filter by different interests such as “recipes” or “fitness.” Unlike Pinterest, however, Lemon8’s search tab also highlights a list of trending hashtags on the platform. TikTok appears to be pushing users toward its sister app Lemon8. Over the past month, Lemon8 has paid several creators to promote Lemon8 to their TikTok audiences. But because Lemon8 is also owned by ByteDance, it would likely be subject to the same law that would ban TikTok in the U.S. The act that President Joe Biden signed into law “prohibits distributing, maintaining, or providing internet hosting services for a foreign adversary controlled application,” not just TikTok. Flip Flip, a social commerce app that blends creator-led shopping platforms such as LTK with TikTok’s “For You” page, has also experienced a surge of interest over the past few days—particularly from creators in the TikTok Shop affiliate program seeking an alternative platform where they can still earn a commission from peddling products. The influx of new user traffic on Flip has been “exponentially higher” than the platform anticipated, to the point that the app was “either very slow or completely down for most users” on Sunday and Monday, according to a social post from Flip. As of September 2024, 12.5% of all U.S. consumers were “actively” using Flip, according to a study from Adobe Express. Of the more than 1,500 U.S. consumers Adobe surveyed for the study, roughly 8% of Gen Zers said they believe “Flip will be the new TikTok.” Over 5,000 brands are currently on the platform for creators to partner with to sell their products, including Samsung, Olaplex and e.l.f. Beauty, according to Flip’s website. @susanluckhardt Replying to @TheMedicalMama LETS TALK ABOUT THE BAN! 😭 info on flip app: check out @emilymayofficial but please don’t bombard her with questions! Do your own research as well. 🫶🏼 #tiktokshopaffiliates ♬ original sound - Susan Luckhardt Sign up for our influencer marketing newsletter here Clapper This short-form video app is clearly making a play for TikTok’s user base, with global downloads rising 270% week-over-week through Tuesday, compared to the week of Dec. 31, according to Sensor Tower. It’s marketed as an 'adult' app, intended for those 17 and older. Clapper has some mechanics that TikTok users are familiar with, including a “For You Page,” and it claims to give every user a chance at virality in its algorithm. On Tuesday, “TikTok refugee,” which has become a rallying cry for social media users bemoaning the potential closure of TikTok, was trending on Clapper. As for ads, Clapper boasts that it doesn’t have any. Apps such as Clapper and ReelShort could attract some new fans from the TikTok fallout, but some social media experts expect their impact to remain small in the grand scheme of social media. “It’s like the dating app world,” said Alex Nisenzon, CEO at e-commerce data company Charm.io, “you have the main apps and then you have really niche ones, for people who love dogs or people who are into books, but they don’t gain mainstream attention.” ReelShort This mobile entertainment app was on Apple’s Top 10 free app charts this week, and it could lay claim to some TikTok audiences. ReelShort is a mobile movie and TV app, with programming that would be familiar to TikTok users that tuned into serialized dramas, which have become a popular genre. ReelShort features Hallmark-like titles such as “The Double Life of a Billionaire Heiress.” The service was at No. 9 in the Apple App Store rankings on Tuesday, but its global downloads were down 15% week over week, ending Tuesday, according to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower, so it hasn’t experienced the same type of rush of new users as some others this week. Still, ReelShort was among the hottest apps in the “social video” category, accounting for 50% of the downloads in that cohort this past week, Sensor Tower said. Triller The video app is back making noise to recruit displaced TikTokers. Social media watchers may recall that during TikTok’s brush with a potential ban in 2020, Triller used the moment to promote itself as a viable alternative. The app now has a new promotion with a similar message—it launched a website called “Save My TikToks,” an app encouraging TikTok users to transfer their videos to Triller. Triller has a scattered history, first trying to appeal to creators as a TikTok clone and later expanding into hip-hop battles after buying Verzuz, the music competition app founded by Swizz Beatz and Timbaland. The Verzuz founders sued Triller over alleged missed payments, ultimately settling the case in 2022. Last year, Verzuz re-emerged under the control of its original founders and with a deal with X. Triller also has produced mixed martial arts and combat sports entertainment, and launched a TrillerTV app. Triller has also been trying to capture creators with social commerce and monetization services, but the app has never truly caught on as a TikTok replacement. Triller this week did see an uptick in downloads, however. It’s still low in the rankings on U.S. charts, but it did jump more than 100 spots on Apple’s App Store, the company said in a press release. Triller sat at No. 39 in the photo and video category on Apple’s charts on Tuesday. Neptune You won’t find this app on Apple or Google devices yet, as its still in beta, but marketers are watching the new social platform to see if it is as advertised. Neptune promises a “custom algorithm,” where users control what they see not the machines, and it plans monetization opportunities for creators, according to its website. Acadia’s Dukes Eddy said that the social media team at the agency is exploring Neptune, trying to learn more about the service through its Discord, the server-based chat platform. So far, the app seems more hype than reality, Dukes Eddy said. Neptune is making big promises, but until they deliver it publicly, it’s hard to feel confident about it, Dukes Eddy said.

How TikTok alternatives are competing for brands and creators—industry leaders break it down

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