As "TikTok refugees" flood to Chinese site RedNote, language learning app Duolingo has reported an over 200% spike in people learning Mandarin.

Duolingo shares have jumped this week, as the number of Americans learning Mandarin on the app has soared 216%. That's as China's RedNote is now the most downloaded free app on Apple's App Store ahead of the TikTok ban.

"First of all, the Chinese are so nice, they're so sweet and so welcoming. They've over here teaching us Mandarin."

Millions are joining RedNote ahead of the TikTok ban. But the app’s default language is Mandarin. “Oh so NOW you’re learning Mandarin,” Duolingo tweeted on Monday.

Duolingo has seen a surge in U.S. Mandarin learners as TikTok users explore Chinese social app RedNote amid a looming ban.

That One Sound is a column from internet culture reporter Charlotte Colombo that explores the origin of popular sounds heard on TikTok. On Jan. 17, the Supreme Court ruled that banning TikTok is not a violation of users’ First Amendment rights. This paved the way for that much-dreaded ban to come into effect from Jan. 19.

The language-learning app Duolingo has seen a surprising trend emerge, the closer we get to the TikTok ban -- there's been a 216% spike in US users learning Mandarin compared to this time last year.

The TikTok ban in the U.S is currently on pause. But a story you may have heard claims the threat of the app going away has led to a massive spike in people learning mandarin on Duolingo.

In protest of the anti-Chinese banning of TikTok, hundreds of thousands of users have flocked to Rednote, a TikTok-like app available in both China and the US with a substantial Chinese user base.

Many Americans are joining RedNote, also known as Xiaohongshu, as a potential TikTok ban looms in the US. As they hop from TikTok to RedNote, some of the so-called TikTok refugees are learning Mandarin to bridge the language divide on the Chinese app.

Yes, the language-learning app has been the big winner amid TikTok’s impending demise and it’s mostly due to spite. According to the app, Duolingo has seen a 216 percent growth in users learning Mandarin Chinese over the last year, which is tied to the growing popularity of RedNote.

Whatever US politicians were hoping for, what they got was a huge increase in users signing up to Duolingo to learn Chinese and American users flooding Chinese apps.