"They’re living in 3024 man" — Netizens divided over futuristic car featured in a viral RedNote video

On Tuesday, January 14, a RedNote video that was shared on X went viral. The tweet—posted by @SxarletRed—showed the inside of a futuristic car in China, which appeared to have a woman driving it, with the caption reading:

"This app is going to undo decades of US propaganda. I’m already jealous of their cars. This is what Joe Biden took from you!"

The tweet has since received 10 million views, 24K likes, and 2K reshares, with netizens having mixed reactions to it. A comment on it read:

"They're living in 3024 man."

Some netizens called the car in the video "quite luxurious," while others claimed that they were living in the Stone Age.

"At the Beijing Auto Show the local cars are quite luxurious with great features. The few American offerings have no visitors," wrote an X user.

"oh i've seen like full tours of these cars on youtube and we are in the stone ages deada**," replied another.

"literal chinese propaganda app lmao," commented a third one.

"been like this for awhile.... yet I will say living there is a much different experience. Remember social media is not always reality. but yes the Chinese autos are lightyears ahead. they are sold in Europe so you can always try one there," posted a fourth user.

Meanwhile, others brought up the wealth disparity in China, pointing out how only the upper class in the country could afford such a car.

"XHS is pretty much only for the rich folks in China, what you’re seeing is how the upper class lives. The wealth disparity is so bad in China they literally have separate apps for classes," wrote a fifth user.

"The solution is for us to build better things," commented a sixth one.

"Nobody in America wants this," replied a seventh user.

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RedNote recently surged as the No.1 free app on the US App Store

In light of the date of TikTok's ban looming around the corner, many TikTok users in the US are flocking to RedNote—a short-form video app called "Xiaohongshu" in Chinese.

According to TechCrunch, RedNote surged to the top of the free apps spot on the US App Store on Monday, January 13, also securing the position of the top social networking app across all free iPhone apps.

Several TikTok creators are also promoting the Chinese app on their social media handles, encouraging their followers to transition to the platform.

Per TechCrunch, RedNote was launched in China in 2013 and has a feed layout that's similar to Pinterest. The platform is typically thought of as a Chinese alternative to Instagram and has seen a strong upward trajectory in recent years.

During the COVID pandemic, the popularity of RedNote rose among the young Chinese netizens explosively. The platform now boasts 300 million active monthly users, with 79% of them being women.

Before the recent attention RedNote has been getting in the US—in the wake of TikTok soon being banned—the app was downloaded approximately 3.2 million times in the country, per the Appfigures' data collected since January 2017.

RedNote is also growing strong in terms of funding, raising nearly $917 million in venture funding from backers like Alibaba, DST, HongShan (formerly Sequoia China), Tencent, ZhenFund, and 13 others.

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A Bloomberg report published on December 12, 2024, claimed that RedNote is projected to increase its profits to over $1 billion ahead of a potential IPO. This could indicate a promising future for the TikTok creators in case the impending ban on the app comes to pass on Sunday.