Shanghai, China - Chinese app RedNote has found itself at the top of US app download charts after so-called "TikTok refugees" fled to the platform ahead of an expected ban at the end of this week.

Social media app Xiaohongshu, which translates to "Little Red Book" and is known in the US as RedNote, is a short-form video app inspired by TikTok and based in Shanghai.

While it is only available in Simplified Chinese and has no translation feature, American users have joined in their thousands. The sudden migration has reportedly been a "surprise" to the start-up, which previously had no plans on targeting the US.

RedNote employees told the Financial Times they are now working hard to capitalize in the surge of traffic, making sure that the app doesn't crash and that new content review mechanisms are put in place.

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US users on the platform have quickly become known as "TikTok refugees," as they move away from a platform that could be banned as early as Sunday.

ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, has taken its case all the way to the Supreme Court, but justices are expected to uphold the ban, despite President-elect Donald Trump calling for a pause in the proceedings.

If the appeal is unsuccessful, then the law banning TikTok will come into force on Sunday, January 19, just one day before Trump's inauguration.

Meanwhile, those jumping ship to RedNote have noted the ironic consequences of Congress' obsession with China supposedly "spying" on and manipulating US users through TikTok.

The translated name of the app has also become a source of hilarity, with "Little Red Book" a reference to Communist revolutionary Mao Zedong's hugely popular book of the same name.

Screenshots posted on x show Chinese users messaging newcomers, sarcastically introducing themselves as "Chinese spies" or demanding their "data."