Duolingo shaded social media users when the language app saw a spike in TikTok users' sudden interest in learning Mandarin to maximize their engagement on RedNote, a newer short-form video app from China natively known as Xiaohongshu.
The mass exodus to RedNote, China's answer to Instagram, comes in advance of the potential ban of TikTok in the U.S. prompted by increased national security concerns about users' data being compromised and vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
A vast majority of these so-called "TikTok refugees" anticipating a possible shutdown of TikTok landed on RedNote. The alternative e-commerce and social networking platform surged to the top of the "free apps" chart in Apple's app store as well as on the Google Play store.
After TikTokers sought Duolingo's services to learn Mandarin for optimal use on RedNote, Duolingo ribbed frantic content creators by telling them:
"Oh so NOW you're learning mandarin."
The language app cheekily added in the comments, "ni hao I guess?"
The Mandarin phrase, "ä˝ ĺĄ˝" or "Ni hao"–pronounced nee haow–means "Hello" in English.
Duolingo just gave us our first free lesson.
@duolingo/Instagram
Duolingo also took to X (formerly Twitter) to delve deeper into the phenomenon, writing:
"Learning Mandarin out of spite? You're not alone."
"We’ve seen a ~216% growth in new Chinese (Mandarin) learners in the US compared to this time last year."
An accompanying graphic highlighted the sudden interest spike, with January 13 indicating the number of "New learners in the US studying Chinese on Duolingo" going off the charts.
@duolingo/X
Users got a kick out of Duolingo's snark.
Without context, many X users were left in the dark as to why Mandarin suddenly became so popular, which is understandable.
Now we're getting somewhere.
Roughly 170 million U.S.-based TikTok users have looked elsewhere to post their content after Democratic President Joe Biden signed a law that could lead to a potential nationwide ban of TikTok unless China-based owner ByteDance sells it to a new owner by January 19.
Many deemed Biden's law "unconstitutional" because it infringed on American free speech and they claimed it “would devastate" millions of the platform’s users who rely on the app to promote their businesses.
However, the Justice Department is expected to make the argument in an emergency hearing in front of the Supreme Court on Friday warning that TikTok could allow the Chinese government to gather and manipulate data of American users.
The social media shake-up came to light after users also abandoned Facebook and Instagram following Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's announcement that he would do away with fact-checkers on his social media platforms.
The move parallels X users' migration to BlueSky following X Corp. owner Elon Musk's controversial policies and term changes and his recent allegiance to incoming President-elect Donald Trump.
@WhiteHouse/X
