Lemon8

About

Lemon8 is a lifestyle social media application owned by Chinese company ByteDance, notable for also owning TikTok. The application, which has been described as a combination of Instagram and Pinterest, allows users to share photos, videos and write blog-style posts relating to categories including fashion, beauty, home, travel and food, also allowing users to tag where they bought their clothes shown in posts and for how much. Lemon8 launched in Japan in 2020 and entered the top charts on the U.S. App Store in March 2023 as ByteDance pushed the app amidst talks of banning TikTok in the U.S. increased.

History

Lemon8^[4] reportedly launched in Japan in April 2020 as a competitor to the Chinese application Little Red Book or "RED."^[1] The app features a layout similar to Pinterest and has a "For You" page like TikTok. It allows users to post videos, photos and blog-style content relating to lifestyle topics. The five main categories on the site are fashion, beauty, home, travel and food.

2023 US Launch

On February 22nd, 2023, Business Insider^[2] reported that ByteDance "quietly launched" Lemon8 in the U.K. and U.S. The app was more widely reported on in late March as it entered the top charts on the Apple App Store, becoming the 11th most downloaded free app on March 28th, 2023.^[3]

Online Presence

In March 2023, ByteDance reportedly began paying TikTokers to advertise Lemon8 and drive traffic to it.^[5] Numerous videos were posted to TikTok that month advertising the app (examples shown below). Twitter^[6][7] users also began increasingly discussing the app that month.

Search Interest

External References