The Chinese technology company ByteDance was established in March 2012. Its products include the familiar Douyin, the overseas version of TikTok, and Xigua Video. Today, ByteDance has launched a new app called Lemon8. At the end of March, this app once entered the top 10 of the US AppStore download list, surpassing competitors such as YouTube, WhatsApp, Gmail and Facebook in one fell swoop, and became popular in the United States in just two months.
What is Lemon8? How to use it?
Lemon8 is a photo-centric app, just like Instagram and Pinterest we use now. However, in addition to photos, it can also post videos like TikTok. The function of posting photos and videos is also easily reminiscent of the social media that has become popular in recent years – Xiaohongshu.
After the user registers, the system will ask the user to select their core interest content from the screen and push them personalized. At this time, the user will receive the video and still photos with the title, and the user can learn more about it based on their interests.
Lemon8 is the same as TikTok. The main push content will be “following”, allowing users to view the creators they follow. In addition, Lemon8 also has a “For You” column to recommend high-quality content for you. Lemon8 also subdivides posts into different categories, such as food, fashion, beauty, etc., allowing users to search for relevant content based on their preferences.
After the upgrade, Lemon8 targets young women in their twenties and thirties. Just like “Xiaohongshu”, Lemon8 emphasizes the tonality of “lifestyle”, focusing on fashion, beauty, food, travel, home, fitness, art, Outdoor, photography and other fields, with videos and atlases as the primary content forms.
At the same time, Lemon8 has adopted methods such as advertising placement and creator incentives. Regarding advertising, Lemon8 has delivered 550,000 creatives in the past year. In terms of user incentives, Lemon8 users can appear on the APP’s “Discovery” page or “Rising Star” in addition to providing bonuses for posting. In addition, Lemon8 is also actively using Twitter, Instagram and TikTok for growth.
From Japan to Southeast Asia and then swept the United States
Like other social media sites like TikTok, Lemon8 also collects user data, including IP addresses, browsing history, device identification codes, and more. According to information displayed on the Apple Apps Store and Google Play Store, the owner of Lemon8 is listed as Heliophilia Pte. Ltd., a Singapore-based company with the same address as ByteDance and TikTok.
Lemon8, the “Growing Grass” APP, first appeared in Japan in March 2020 and has rapidly grown into the largest lifestyle-sharing community in Japan and Southeast Asia. It first focused on the Japanese market. Its original name was Sharee. As the name suggests, it is a product that focuses on sharing and planting grass. In September 2021, Sharee officially changed its name to Lemon8. The new name is reportedly inspired by “Lemonade”, which means sharing new things like refreshing lemonade, and “8” comes from “∞” (infinity).
Lemon8 was first launched in Asian markets in 2020 and has made headway in Thailand and Japan, with about 7.4 million and 5 million downloads, respectively, according to data.ai, an app analytics firm. As of April 9, 2023, the app had 290,000 downloads in the United States, most of whom downloaded it in late March. And it’s also listed as one of the most popular apps in the Apple App Store.
Will Lemon8 be the biggest competitor of Xiaohongshu?
This seemingly unknown App is now ranked TOP10 in the download list in the United States, even surpassing established apps such as Facebook and YouTube. However, the outside world is currently observing whether this lemon will successfully break through the market of Xiaohongshu in Southeast Asia. Or become an extension of TikTok’s business when Tiktok is on the cusp? All this remains to be answered in time.
