Traffic was modest, but steady for the first year after the House of Kirin Chinese restaurant opened in Brooklyn Center.
Then influencer Tony Cu posted a video on TikTok about the restaurant’s $6 lunch buffet special in December, and suddenly owner Michael Chan was scrambling to keep up with business.
House of Kirin is one of scores of Minnesota businesses that have developed a passionate following based on videos posted by influencers.
As news spread Friday that the U.S. Supreme Court had upheld a ban on TikTok, several local influencers and businesses said it would have an immediate impact on their bottom line.
Independent social media consultant Frida Torres, owner of That Social Invite, said the No. 1 question she gets from clients lately is what’s going to happen with TikTok.
“A lot of the business owners that I work with don’t necessarily have these big budgets for advertising, so we look for ways to get them visibility, and get them engagement in a low-cost way, while really optimizing the content that we’re doing so that it speaks for their audience,” Torres said.
The appeal of TikTok comes from what Torres called “discoverability,” meaning users don’t have to be following specific accounts to find their content. Instead, the app’s algorithm does most of the work.
“The algorithm of TikTok was very optimized to get that content out there in a way that we truly haven’t seen with other platforms. And the sense that, maybe on Instagram, it would take you a little bit longer to get a following or get a community, TikTok was really, really good at being able to just put your business and your content in the eyes of new people,” Torres said.
Chan saw that firsthand. He opened House of Kirin 18 months ago to offer a “more authentic” Chinese dining experience. Chan said he didn’t advertise the opening but expected word to travel of his business via WeChat, a messaging app popular with the Chinese community.
In December Chan said he suddenly noticed “thousands” of people coming through his doors. Many, according to him, weren’t his typical clientele.
House of Kirin had advertised a $6 lunch buffet special for a limited time during weekdays. It was a way to get a few people in the door until Cu, a Minnesota-based influencer, got wind of the deal.
Cu’s video drew more than 570,000 views on TikTok alone.
“The guy came to try it and boom,” Chan said. “We didn’t expect too many people to come and some people came all the way from Rochester to try the food.”
The sudden influx of people was a welcome surprise for the business but also came with issues.
Customers complained about long waits as the line spread out the door. Keeping the buffet stocked was also an issue, and Chan said that led some customers to over-serve themselves for fear of missing out, which caused food waste.
“It’s to the point that we just couldn’t handle it anymore and had to end it sooner. So I think a lot of people are upset about it,” Chan said.
Still, the owner said, some of the new customers have stuck around and have become regulars at the restaurant.
Chan said he’s not on any social media sites but has recognized that younger customers are coming in and making more videos lately with the purpose of posting them on TikTok.
According to him, the social media app has helped introduce his food to a broader audience in what has been a tough year for businesses.
“2024 was really a tough year for restaurants. To be honest with you, the things are so expensive, inflation so bad, and the labor costs so high, it just slows down restaurants,” Chan said.
Chan said he worries about business slowing down without the added exposure TikTok gave House of Kirin. On Wednesday, he filled in as cashier at the restaurant’s front desk after laying off one employee.
The app will be banned on Sunday unless it’s sold by its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. If the ban goes through, current users will still have access to the app, but new users won’t be able to download it.
A nice side hustle
Torres said TikTok’s discoverability allows posts on newer businesses to go viral or reach a wider audience than on other social media sites.
Businesses involved in food, entertainment and health and wellness tend to see the largest engagement on TikTok, but any business can start trending if it resonates with a specific audience, Torres said.
Influencers can make anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars from their videos.
Patricia Thao, known on TikTok as YumYum Adventures, began making videos around 2021 of herself trying to replicate viral recipes, then she also started filming her experiences eating out.
“Growing up here as a Hmong person there’s a lot of food here that was not being showcased, that was not as mainstream. So that’s something that kind of pushed me to initially start doing my food reviews,” Thao said.
The 28-year-old influencer said she partners with businesses who might not have a TikTok presence and helps them reach a younger and more diverse audience.
She started showcasing places to eat and things to do with a focus on diverse businesses. Thao’s recent video on Duck’s Japanese-style claw arcade in Eagan drew 450,000 views.
Duck owner Zhengui Lin said he brought in influencers like Thao and Jessica Baptista-Rieder, known as Latina in Minnesota, to create buzz in different ethnic communities.
It worked. Customers lined up at 5 a.m. on opening day to check out his arcade and gashapon machines.
“I was just trying to tap into, like, all the communities,” Lin said. “It just seems this thing [claw machine arcades] is so new, I wanted to bring it to everybody, not just for a certain group.”
Thao calls being an influencer her “side hustle” since over time she began partnering with businesses to create content and make extra money.
“It’s kind of sad to see all my hard work and the platform where I started go away without any real reasoning from the U.S. government, other than the fact that it’s being owned by Chinese entities,” Thao said.
Jumping platforms
Torres said the businesses that could suffer the most are those who already have a strong presence or community on the app if they haven’t maintained their presence on other platforms.
“There’s going to be a lot of new education when it comes to getting used to different platforms, but overall, one, communities are obviously going to be lost. And then two, if TikTok was one of your main marketing avenues, obviously, losing that discoverability and engagement is going to have an impact financially,” Torres said.
Influencer Bria Black recently moved to Minneapolis from Louisiana and found success documenting her journey in the new city in her free time.
From trying out the Minnesota State Fair for the first time to trying to establish a sense of community in her new home, Black has filmed it all.
The payoff for her work has resulted in some major deals for Black who was recently paid $2,000 to attend a Timberwolves game and make a video, but future deals are now under threat.
“TikTok is where I’ve had the most growth, organic growth, and I have my largest following,” Black said. “It made me feel I don’t have to do this 9 to 5 grind, corporate life forever. It makes me feel hope that I can one day do something that I actually am passionate about.”
Black said she’s upset about the potential ban and has been encouraging followers to add her on other platforms.
“I just feel like we have so many other things to worry about as a nation. TikTok should not be the top priority,” Black said.
