Social media startup Xiaohongshu has seen its Chinese app climb to the top of the iPhone download charts in the US, an unexpected response to short-video app TikTok facing a ban later this week.

Xiaohongshu, which translates to “Little Red Book” but is widely known as RedNote in the U.S., topped Apple’s free app downloads this week as so-called “TikTok refugees” flocked to the platform.

An official at the Shanghai-based company described the sudden surge in downloads as a “surprise” since it has no plans to grow by targeting American users and the startup is focused on solidifying its popularity in China.

Most of the content is in Mandarin and the app does not have a translation feature that would allow new US users to understand posts. The app does not have an official English name.

They added that the company is trying to capitalize on the sudden surge in traffic and may need to change content review mechanisms if American influencers start uploading posts.

New US users initially focused on introducing themselves to Chinese audiences. One woman described herself as a “TikTok nomad,” while a man called “SoCal Masker” wrote in English and Chinese that he was “looking forward to this new opportunity to share my content.”

The sudden influx of users is largely a symbolic shift led by influencers protesting the U.S. attempt to ban TikTok. Several viral posts joked about simply switching to another Chinese platform.

TikTok’s parent company ByteDance is bracing for a possible ban if the U.S. Supreme Court fails to strike down a law blocking the app unless a non-Chinese buyer is found before the Jan. 19 deadline. The court announced Friday that it would uphold the ban because ByteDance has close ties to the Chinese government.

For TikTok’s 170 million users in the US, this wouldn’t mean the platform would disappear immediately, but ByteDance would be unable to update the app and performance would decline.

Xiaohongshu is an Instagram-like app that is extremely popular among young Chinese women who use the platform for travel, restaurant and beauty tips. It is an important platform for fashion and beauty brands to reach wealthy consumers in cities through promotions in posts or by paying influencers. The male user base has also grown steadily.

The company is profitable and one of the few success stories in a Chinese internet sector hit by bankruptcies and declining valuations. Xiaohongshu has been investing in its e-commerce business in China and trying to convert its traffic into new revenue streams. So far, the company has struggled to make much headway in e-commerce, a heavily saturated market dominated by Alibaba’s Taobao and ByteDance’s Douyin, the Chinese sister version of TikTok.

Xiaohongshu did not respond to a request for comment.

Over the summer, Xiaohongshu was valued at $17 billion in a secondary stock sale in which venture capital firm DST Global bought shares from existing investors. At the peak of Chinese internet start-up valuations in 2021, the company was valued at $20 billion in a funding round that also included Singaporean state-backed investor Temasek.

Xiaohongshu is seeking an IPO in Hong Kong but is waiting for Beijing to clarify its stance on listing major tech companies abroad, the FT previously reported.

The startup’s IPO plans are complicated by the wealth of information about Chinese consumers that could put it in the crosshairs of China’s restrictions on cross-border data sharing.

Additional reporting by Hannah Murphy in San Francisco