The social network Lemon8, owned by ByteDance, has climbed into the top of the most downloaded free applications on the App Store in the United States. But just like Tiktok, the platform could be banned on American soil.
The noose is tightening around Tiktok. While the Supreme Court must examine this Friday, January 10, the constitutionality of a law forcing the parent company, ByteDance, to sell the social network under penalty of ban in the United States.
A situation that benefits the Lemon8 application, also owned by ByteDance. According to Business Insider, the application is one of the most downloaded free applications on the App Store in the United States.
12.5 million users
According to figures from Sensor Tower, the platform had 12.5 million monthly active users worldwide. A nice progression, since the application tripled its user base in October, but which still remains very far from the 150 million American users on Tiktok.
The social network, launched in April 2023 in the United States, is a mix between Instagram and Pinterest. As on Instagram, the heart is the aesthetic aspect of the photos around lifestyle subjects such as beauty, travel… And in the same way as Pinterest, the images are above all recommendations intended to encourage a click to a store, to like a huge advertising catalog.
But there is also a tab where users can scroll through videos… which uses the same recommendation algorithm as Tiktok. For the moment, it is not yet available in France.
-And in recent days, more and more influencers have been advertising Lemon8. This is the case of Strawberriredd, a lifestyle videographer. “Tiktok has a backup application, it’s Lemon8,” she announces, in a video viewed 2.8 million times.
Lemon8, potentially banned in the United States
“You can log in directly with your Tiktok credentials. If you want to have another place to go after Tiktok is banned, go to Lemon8,” she continues.
Some influencers are also sponsored by Lemon8 to produce promotional videos for Lemon8, directly on the short video application. With one objective: to push users to change social networks, in case Tiktok is banned.
The problem is that Lemon8 could also be banned on American soil. Indeed, last April, the American Congress adopted by a large majority the law against Tiktok, accused of allowing Chinese authorities to unduly collect the data of American users. The text states that if the parent company ByteDance has not sold Tiktok by January 19, 2025, the platform will be banned on American territory.
While the document only mentions Tiktok and ByteDance, it specifies that “applications controlled by foreign adversaries, such as Tiktok and any successor application or service, as well as any other application or service developed or provided by ByteDance” are also affected.
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