The secret sauce of Chinese social media apps Rest of World By: Tiffany Ap and Kinling Lo 24 January 2025 at 06:00 In the days leading up to the January 19 deadline for TikTok, users in the U.S. scrambled to find alternatives. But instead of YouTube, X, or Instagram, the so-called TikTok... © Rest of WorldChinese owned apps that specialize in social commerce like Lemon8, Xiaohongshu and TikTok have dominated American attention.