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

Popular TikTok accounts such as DuoLingo shared trade secrets before the app went dark in the US, while creators confessed to long-running inside jokes.

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

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.

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.

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.

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 social media landscape experienced a dramatic shift last week when TikTok temporarily went dark in the U.S., hours ahead of its "divest or ban" deadline. While the platform's services have since been restored — reportedly thanks to intervention from President Trump — the 12-hour blackout has left an indelible mark on user trust and brand strategies.

A roundup of the most shocking confessions that influencers like Charli D'Amelio, Meredith Duxbury, and Hayley Kalil made before TikTok's ban on Jan. 19.

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

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.