Company that made TikTok creates Lemon8 — a cross between Pinterest and Instagram
After several countries made a move to restrict TikTok one way or another, and might soon get banned in the United States, it seems like its creator ByteDance has a backup plan called Lemon8. Envision the app as a cross between Pinterest and Instagram.
Plotted as a “lifestyle community,” it dominated the US App Store’s Top Charts on Monday. It soon became the number 10 Overall app. As of writing, it was number 9 on the Top Apps chart, excluding games. As this happened, the United States looks at a nationwide TikTok ban.
Several posts had explanations or tutorials about a wide range of topics. These include one of them described “3 Ways to Style Viral Birkenstock Boston’s.”
One explained, “ALL you need to know about styling a denim skirt!” Each post is a small photo carousel containing a long description.
Others produced content having hashtags like #lemon8review for product reviews. Lemon8 can be compared to ByteDance’s Kesong app called planting grass. The term means getting people to purchase items according to reviews from online influencers. Based on Business Insider, Lemon8 was paying influencers to post.
According to a report, it told said content creators put three to seven vertical pictures and long, 100 to 300-word captions for posts.
The sudden popularity of Lemon8 online may seem strange given its lack of advertising.
According to app intelligence provider Apptopia, the app gained 16 million installs worldwide since it launched in Japan in 2020 under the name Sharee.
Currently, the firm has 4.25 million monthly active users. However, US download figures are not available.
Despite that, users are loving the app. Gabriel Victor said, “…it’s so [expletive] cute. Aesthetically pleasing. It’s like Pinterest and Instagram came together and had a baby.”
