TikTok is in trouble, the ‘junior’ application Lemon8 immediately emerged in the US

According to the AP news agency, the app, called Lemon8, is likely to face some of the same surveillance orders as TikTok after concerns emerged that the Chinese government could force the two apps’ parent company ByteDance to hand over user data in the US or post false information on this platform.

For its part, TikTok insists that did not happen. The video-sharing platform is trying to convince lawmakers that it can keep user data safe. Meanwhile, ByteDance is also promoting expansion plans with the new app.

Lemon8 is a photo posting and sharing app that looks like a cross between Instagram and Pinterest, and also integrates videos that look like those posted on TikTok. Advertising experts say the app reminds users of Chinese e-commerce and social media giant Xiaohongshu (translated as “Little Red Book”).

Like TikTok, Lemon8’s main feed allows users to see content from creators they follow, as well as a ‘for you’ section that recommends other posts. It also segments posts by different categories, like fashion, beauty, and food, and allows users to discover content according to a variety of other requirements.

Similar to TikTok and other social networking sites, Lemon8 collects user data including IP addresses, browsing history, device identifiers and other information.

On the Apple app store and Google Play, the owner of Lemon8 is listed as Heliophilia Pte. – the company is based in Singapore at the same address as ByteDance and TikTok.

According to data from analytics firm data.ai, Lemon8 was first launched in Asia in 2020 and has enjoyed success in countries like Thailand and Japan, with around 7.4 percent respectively. million and 5 million downloads.

Lemon8 has been in circulation in the US since February 2023 and has been promoted by some influential people on TikTok.

As of April 2, this application in the US has received 290,000 downloads. The majority of users came to the application at the end of March, which means that the download speed of users is increasing rapidly. Lemon8 was also included in the top one of the trending apps for March on the App Store.

Nicla Bartoli, VP of Sales for Influencer Marketing Factory, said that at the end of February, ByteDance reached out to her company and explained about the app and how influencers can use it to influence their campaigns. Brands can promote on this platform.

It remains to be seen whether the application will succeed or fail.

Brendan Gahan, Social Platforms Manager at content creation company Mekanism, says that over the past five years, social media platforms have been flooded with hype but eventually disappeared. He points to good examples like BeReal and Clubhouse that gained a lot of attention for two years before users turned their attention to other apps. “ The success of social sharing apps is hard to achieve and hard to maintain ,” explains Gahan.

Although ByteDance did not disclose how the company developed Lemon8, at a cybersecurity conference held over the weekend, ByteDance general counsel Erich Andersen noted that the company will continue to develop this application.

“ We will certainly do our best with the Lemon8 app to comply with US laws and to make sure we do the right thing here. But I think we still have a long way to go. This is just the warm-up phase ,” said Andersen.

In addition to TikTok and Lemon8, CapCut is also an application of ByteDance that is being loved by the American people.

CapCut advertises itself as an “all-in-one” video editing tool that allows users to trim or speed up videos as well as do other things like add effects, adjust audio.

According to data.ai, since its launch in April 2020, the app has received 60 million downloads in the US and 940 million globally.

As for the popular Chinese apps that are “storming” in the US, the US Congress is still controversial. In the Senate, while there is a group in favor of the LIMITATION Act bill, which would not remove TikTok but give the US Department of Commerce the power to review and potentially limit foreign threats to technology background, there are still some opponents, arguing that the law is too vague and can be abused.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner said the bill would make it easier to track other potentially dangerous apps like Lemon8.

“ For a long time, our government has played the ‘random rat’ game when it comes to addressing foreign technological threats. The LIMIT Act would establish an intelligence-based, risk-based process to assess and mitigate the risks posed by technology from adversarial countries, whether it’s Huawei, TikTok, Lemon8 or the next viral technology product promoted by an external country ”, emphasized Mr. Warner.