Follower Growth and Engagement Trends of TikTok Refugees: A Comparative Study of Migration to Rednote

In recent years, platform migration has become an increasingly common phenomenon in the social media landscape. Due to the temporary ban of TikTok in the United States, many users tend to create an account on an alternative Chinese platform---- Rednote. This paper focuses on two groups of users, "TikTok refugees" and "Rednote native influencers". TikTok refugees refer to people who were banned from using TikTok in their own countries and started to create an account on Rednote against the administrative order, Rednote native influencers are people who originated on Rednote. By using time-series and panel regression models, this research analyzes creator performance based on follower counts and interaction metrics collected across both platforms. Although there is an increasing relevance of platform migration, the case study between TikTok and Rednote is newly developed, and limited research has quantitatively examined the behavioural, growth, and engagement differences between these two groups. Besides, this study contributes to the literature on digital platform migration by providing empirical evidence on performance dynamics and audience behaviour. The findings offer insights for platform managers and creators navigating post-ban digital environments.