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ByteDance-owned Lemon8 was introduced in the United States and the United Kingdom in February last year. Photo: Bloomberg
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ByteDance lifestyle app Lemon8 sees popularity surge in the US as TikTok faces sell-or-ban ultimatum

  • Lemon8, which has been described as a cross between Instagram and Pinterest, has risen in popularity in the US a year after it was launched
  • It has been the most downloaded lifestyle app on Apple ’s App Store in the US since April 7, ahead of Pinterest and dating platform Tinder
ByteDance
Coco Feng
Coco Fengin Beijing
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Chinese social media giant ByteDance is seeing a rise in popularity for its four-year-old Lemon8 lifestyle app in the United States, as the company’s flagship short video platform TikTok faces a potential ban in the world’s largest economy.
Lemon8, which has been described as a cross between Instagram and Pinterest, is a content-curation platform featuring lengthy blog-style posts that emphasise photos over videos. Users can browse, record and engage with popular content that includes fashion, travel, food and health.
It has been the most downloaded lifestyle app on Apple’s App Store in the US since April 7, ahead of Pinterest and dating platform Tinder. It was briefly unseated by Pinterest on April 26 and 27, according to app analytics provider Data.ai.
For Android device users in the US, Lemon8 was ranked between 10th and 19th among lifestyle apps on Google Play for the past month. That put Lemon8 behind Pinterest and Amazon’s Alexa, but ahead of online publishing platform Substack.
Lifestyle app Lemon8 has seen its popularity grow on both Apple’s App Store and Google Play in the United States. Photo: Shutterstock
Initially known as “Sharee” when ByteDance launched it in Japan in March 2020, Lemon8 was introduced in the US and the United Kingdom in February last year. The app is also available across Southeast Asia including in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.
The strong interest in Lemon8 across the US shows how ByteDance’s strategy to introduce the platform last year, in the same month American lawmakers revived a bill to ban TikTok, appears to be paying off.
At that time, TikTok had been in talks for more than two years to reach a national security agreement with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, an inter-agency body that reviews certain transactions involving foreign investment in the country.

In 2020, then-US President Donald Trump had signed an executive order to force ByteDance to sell its US operations over fears that user data could be passed on to China’s government. TikTok has consistently rejected that allegation.

United States President Joe Biden speaks after signing into law a US$95 billion foreign aid package and a measure to ban TikTok in the US at the White House in Washington on April 24, 2024. Photo: Agence France-Presse

ByteDance, meanwhile, has been paying TikTok influencers to promote the lesser-known Lemon8 app in the US, according to a New York Post report.

Lemon8 has also been among the top three lifestyle apps for iOS users the past month in other markets, including Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, according to Data.ai. In Japan, Lemon8 ranked 20th among iOS lifestyle apps as of Monday.

US President Joe Biden last month signed into law a legislative measure that would force the removal of TikTok from app stores in the country unless ByteDance divests the short video platform’s US business. Biden has set a January 19 deadline – one day before his term is to expire – but he could grant a three-month extension if he determines ByteDance is making progress.
Beijing-based ByteDance has denied a report by US digital publication The Information, which said that it was “exploring scenarios” to sell a majority stake in TikTok’s US operations and asserted that it had no plans to divest this business. TikTok has said that it aims to challenge the US measure in court.
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