What marketers need to know about ByteDance-owned Lemon8 — and its link to TikTok | International Association of Digital Marketing Professionals (IADMP)

By Krystal Scanlon

Chances are you’ve not heard of Lemon8. The ByteDance-owned Instagram alternative has kept a low profile since it launched in Japan in 2020. But the name won’t be unrecognizable for too much longer. Not when Lemon8 is getting ready to officially launch in the U.S. later this year.

Worried about missing out? Don’t worry, Digiday has done the hard work for you. What follows is the inside track on the app, what it means for marketers, how it fits into the wider TikTok drama and much more.

First up, what is Lemon8?

Lemon8 describes itself as a “content sharing platform for a youthful community” where its users can discover “beautiful, authentic, and diverse content.”

Think of it like Instagram and Pinterest, for a Gen Z-type audience, merged together: the polished photos that you’d find on Instagram, alongside the focus on products and categorization features from Pinterest with a sprinkle of the lifestyle topics including fashion and food that have helped set the platform apart from its peers. It could be argued, Lemon8 has taken the best bits of both worlds (or rather apps).

And Lemon8 seems to boast the same algorithm as TikTok, according to a report by The New York Times last week, which said that ByteDance contacted a number of creators last month about the app. In the message, ByteDance made it clear that Lemon8 shares the same “recommendation engine” as TikTok — the one feature that no other social network has been able to replicate or match and put TikTok streets ahead of its competition.

Marketers who spoke to Digiday have said the platform, at least right now, seems to be putting creators first — maybe too much if the oversaturation of influencers on the platform is anything to go on.

TikTokers Passion Williems (@passionwilliems), Natasha Mathurent (@natashascloset) and Gabrielle Victor (@gabivictorr), for example, are among a number of creators that have already hopped on the Lemon8 bandwagon in the past week or so, in a bid to be the early adopters of the app. They have already amassed 2011, 807 and 186 followers on ByteDance’s other app, respectively.

However, despite the abundance of creator content on the app, there doesn’t appear to be a clear way for them to monetize it. Perhaps that’s why not many of the larger influencers have made the jump to the social network just yet.

The lack of a creator commercial plan is surprising given the app has existed since at least March 2020, according to Apptopia, which cited the date as when the app launched on both the Apple App Store and Android Google Play store. The social platform, formerly known as Sharee, was launched as an international version of Chinese app Xiaohongshu, just as TikTok mirrors its Chinese counterpart Douyin.

But since 2020, Lemon8 has reportedly made headway across Asia, including Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore.