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.
Now, with the Supreme Court soon to rule in a case that could determine whether TikTok could be banned in the United States over national security concerns, Ms. Lee and other Americans looking for alternatives are downloading Xiaohongshu, a social media app that is popular in China and little known outside the country.
“How funny would it be if they ban TikTok and we all just move over to this Chinese app,” Ms. Lee wrote on Monday on TikTok encouraging her followers to join her.
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.”
A group of American creators have sued the government over the law that could see the TikTok app forcibly sold or banned in the United States, and TikTok is paying their legal fees. Ms. Lee and another creator said in interviews that their interest in Xiaohongshu had not been incentivized by either company. TikTok did not respond to a request for comment.
The Americans on Xiaohongshu have rallied under the hashtag “TikTokrefugee,” which had been viewed 100 million times and sparked around 2.5 million discussion threads on the app by Tuesday.
Joining the app has put American users in closer contact with people online in China than they have ever been on TikTok. In China, people use Douyin, a very similar app that ByteDance used to develop the technology that made TikTok a worldwide hit. Douyin is difficult to access outside China.
Many shared tips on how to navigate the app, which is mainly made for and used by people who read and speak Mandarin. Some took screenshots and asked ChatGPT to translate posts, they said.
Xiaohongshu displays the city or province of Chinese users who post and comment, and the country for users outside China. “We are coming to the Chinese spies and begging them to let us stay here,” said one American user. “Approved, welcome to Red Note,” someone in Shanghai replied.
Until late December, 85 percent of Xiaohongshu traffic was from China, according to Similarweb, a data provider and website traffic tracker. The app is especially popular among women in their 20s and 30s, and its long comment threads have become a popular source of information for people to swap questions about everyday concerns, similar to Reddit.
Xiaohongshu did not respond to requests for comment.
On Tuesday, more than 100,000 people had joined a live group chat hosted by a user named “TikTok Refugee Club,” where people from around the world chatted with Chinese users about urban safety. In another group chat, which had been viewed more than 30,000 times, participants discussed censorship and shared tips in the comments on how to avoid being banned from the platform for bringing up politically sensitive topics.
Under another video posted by someone who said they were usually on TikTok, a user in China responded with a meme of a cat with paws outstretched. “I’m your Chinese spy,” the comment said, “give me all your data.”
