What is Lemon8? This is a question we hear often these days. The looming threat of a TikTok ban in the United States has sent its parent company, ByteDance, scrambling to promote another one of its social media apps – Lemon8. This app, which bills itself as a “lifestyle community,” has skyrocketed up the ranks of the U.S. App Store, landing in the number 9 spot on the Top Apps chart (excluding games).
Lemon8 had previously never ranked in the Top 200 Overall Charts in the U.S., according to data provided by app store intelligence company data.ai, reported TechCrunch. This sudden jump to the Top 10 is likely due to a significant push for paid user acquisition, although exact data on U.S. installs is not yet available.
Lemon8 was launched globally in March 2020 and has since gained 16 million downloads, with Japan being its top market. While exact figures for U.S. installs are unknown, app intelligence provider Apptopia estimates that the app currently has 4.25 million monthly active users. Apptopia has not yet seen evidence of Lemon8 spending on paid search on either the App Store or Google Play, but suggests that the app may have paid install campaigns that are not yet visible.
However, it is possible that ByteDance is leveraging its own social media channels to drive app installs. On TikTok, a number of creators have recently begun posting about Lemon8, with many new videos appearing in just the past 24 hours. Some are suspicious about the sudden interest in the app, wondering if it is a form of paid influencer marketing on ByteDance’s part.
Last month, Insider reported that ByteDance had been quietly rolling out Lemon8 in the U.S. and U.K. and had been paying creators to post on the app to seed its initial U.S. content. It is possible that some of the new TikTok videos promoting Lemon8 are also a form of paid influencer marketing.
Many of the TikTok videos promoting Lemon8 describe the app as a mix of Pinterest and Instagram, using the same language as the influencers who were paid by ByteDance to promote the app on Insider. A search for the keyword “Lemon8” on TikTok yields over 350 videos published in the last 24 hours, with a large number of them being positive reviews encouraging users to download the app.
While Lemon8 may not be a viable backup plan for a TikTok ban, as U.S. lawmakers could consider restrictions on mobile applications beyond TikTok, ByteDance is not above using influencers to promote its apps. The company even sent influencers to Washington ahead of last week’s congressional hearing to lobby on behalf of TikTok.
It’s normal that “What is Lemon8?” is a common question these days, because the #Lemon8 hashtag currently has 2.3 billion views on TikTok, although this includes non-U.S. and non-English language content from a larger period of time. The #TikTokBan hashtag has also grown to 1.7 billion views on TikTok, with many users objecting to the proposed ban.
@keanna.jackson 🍋Let me know what you guys think of #lemon8 #tiktok #fy #fyp #newapp #keannamoore
As lawmakers continue to consider a TikTok ban or forced sale, it is clear that ByteDance is not sitting idle. While the sudden surge in popularity for Lemon8 may be due to paid user acquisition efforts or influencer marketing, it remains to be seen if the app can sustain its popularity in the face of regulatory uncertainty. For now, one question on many people’s minds is: What is Lemon8, and why is it suddenly so popular?
What is Lemon8?
Lemon8 is a picture-based app that positions itself as a “lifestyle community” aimed at connecting like-minded individuals and sharing “beautiful, authentic, and diverse content.” Unlike TikTok, Lemon8 is solely focused on still images, particularly those that resemble influencer ads. The app’s main feed is divided into two sections: “Following” and “For You,” and users can select categories they are interested in, such as fashion, beauty, food, fitness, and travel.
Initially launched in Japan in 2020 under the name Sharee, Lemon8 expanded to Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam after gaining over 1 million downloads in Japan. It is now being soft-launched in the UK and US. The app was likely developed to compete with Xiaohongshu (also known as Little Red Book or RED), a successful Chinese shopping and lifestyle recommendations platform that claims to hold 15% of China’s online e-commerce market. Xiaohongshu, which is similar to Instagram, incentivizes users to buy products based on influencer reviews. Many luxury and fashion brands use Xiaohongshu’s influencers to reach affluent Chinese users.
Lemon8 users can post a carousel of photos displaying their recommendations, but they must include a detailed caption, similar to Xiaohongshu. The app encourages users to share where they purchased items and allows them to tag each product in a photo with a brand and price. For categories such as fashion, shopping finds, food, and travel, there are also “caption templates” that provide users with another way to share where they bought the featured items and how much they cost.
Reports suggest that an initial seeding campaign in the UK and US saw influencers being paid to post on Lemon8 to increase engagement. These influencers allegedly had specific guidelines to follow to receive payment, such as using three to seven high-definition, vertically shot photos and writing a 100-to-300-word caption.
Who owns Lemon8?
ByteDance owns Lemon8. It is a Chinese multinational internet technology company that was founded in 2012. It is known for owning and operating the popular short-form video-sharing app, TikTok, which has over 1 billion monthly active users worldwide. ByteDance has expanded its business operations to various other areas, including artificial intelligence, news, gaming, and music.
Conclusion
Back to our original question. What is Lemon8? It is an app that seeks to connect people with similar interests through a highly visual medium. While it may have been developed to compete with Xiaohongshu and its successful use of influencer marketing, it remains to be seen whether Lemon8 can achieve the same level of success in the Western market.
With its emphasis on still images and detailed captions, it may appeal to users looking for a more curated and informative social media experience. What is clear, however, is that ByteDance is continuing to expand its social media offerings in the face of regulatory uncertainty around TikTok, and Lemon8 appears to be the latest contender in the company’s arsenal.
In summary, what is Lemon8:
- Lemon8 is an app owned by ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok.
- ByteDance has expanded Lemon8 into Western markets, including the UK and US.
- This move comes at a time when Instagram, owned by Meta, is scaling back its shopping features and showing more ads instead.
- Lemon8 emphasizes still images and encourages users to share detailed captions that include where they bought products and how much they cost.
