
Weeks after US President Donald Trump granted an extension to TikTok to find a US buyer, the app has returned to US mobile stores. Meanwhile, the rival social media app Xiaohongshu suffered a 91 per cent drop in downloads.
In the five days of TikTok being relisted on Apple's iPhone app store and Google Play, downloads of Xiaohongshu, also known as Rednote, plummeted by 91 per cent, according to Sensor Tower data.
The social media app Rednote is referred to as China's version of Instagram and gained popularity when TikTok was about to face a ban in the US.
Daily active users on Rednote are still about a quarter higher than they were prior to TikTok's delisting.
After being brought back, TikTok more than doubled its usual downloads.
The popular short-video platform, which has approximately 170 million users in the US, briefly went offline ahead of a law requiring its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to either sell the app or face a nationwide ban. The law was set to take effect on 19 January.
After assuming office on 20 January, Trump signed an order delaying the enforcement of the ban on TikTok by 75 days. He has since confirmed discussions with various parties about acquiring TikTok and indicated that a decision regarding its future is likely in February.
Earlier this month, Trump mentioned that Microsoft was among the companies interested in acquiring the platform. “I would say yes… A lot of interest in TikTok. There’s great interest in TikTok," he said.
Notably, the company has rejected the idea of selling it to a US company.
(With inputs from agencies)