Manimatana Lee spent the past five years building one of the hottest commodities on the internet: a group of people who reliably watch her videos on TikTok.
She built an audience of nearly 10,000 followers with videos of herself vacuuming her house in Wisconsin while her youngest daughter napped in a carrier on her back. A video of Ms. Lee dancing and doing the dishes — while wearing her sleeping baby — has been watched more than one million times since November.
The law that took aim at TikTok in April over national security concerns prompted Ms. Lee and other Americans looking for alternatives to download Xiaohongshu, a social media app that is popular in China and little known outside the country.
Xiaohongshu was the most downloaded free app in the U.S. Apple store on Tuesday. Over 300 million people, mostly in China, use the app, where they share short videos as well as still, text-based posts. People flocking to it said, in interviews and on the app, that they wanted to show they do not share Washington’s concerns about TikTok’s ties to China.
TikTok, which is available in more than 150 countries but not China, is owned by the Chinese internet company ByteDance. American creators who post videos on TikTok say the app has been a source of connection, entertainment and information since it became a sensation during the Covid-19 pandemic. Its secret sauce is its proprietary algorithm, technology that recommends a constant stream of short videos targeted to keep people scrolling.
But lawmakers in the United States and other countries have warned that the Chinese government could use TikTok to access data about its users such as location and browsing histories. Officials in Washington say they are also concerned that China could use TikTok to spread false information among the 170 million people who use it in the United States.
Xiaohongshu means “little red book” in Mandarin. Americans new to the app said they were not put off by the reference to a book of Mao Zedong’s sayings. Many call the app “Red Note.”
“I don’t really care if I’m using a Chinese app at all,” said Ms. Lee. “It’s like a place for me to escape reality. And if it’s making me feel good, I’m here for it.”
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