ByteDance, the company behind TikTok, has been striving to make Lemon8, its Pinterest-Instagram hybrid competitor, gain popularity in the United States. However, the app’s performance has been underwhelming. Since its U.S. launch earlier this year, Lemon8 has only managed to accumulate approximately 2.6 million downloads in the U.S., according to data from app store market intelligence provider Appfigures. This limited success is surprising, given the substantial influencer marketing efforts, where TikTok creators endorsed the app to their followers, possibly in response to rumors of a TikTok ban in the U.S.
The timing of these efforts appeared deliberate. In case TikTok faced a potential loss of its U.S. audience, ByteDance considered Lemon8 as a contingency plan and leveraged TikTok’s massive user base to promote it. Influencers on TikTok began enthusiastically endorsing the app in the first quarter of the year, portraying it as a vibrant lifestyle community, describing it as “cute” and “aesthetically pleasing,” and drawing comparisons to a blend of Pinterest and Instagram.
Although Lemon8 was available in Japan since 2020 and gained popularity in other Eastern markets like Thailand and Indonesia, it did not gain substantial traction until April 2020, when monthly installs surged from less than a thousand to 13,000. The app achieved its first peak in monthly downloads in July 2021, with 292,000 downloads, as reported by Appfigures. In 2022, it reached another peak with 1.5 million downloads in July, resulting in a total of 10.6 million downloads for the year.
This year, Lemon8 quietly expanded to the U.S. and the U.K., with ByteDance initiating creator marketing campaigns. In February, ByteDance paid creators to post content on Lemon8 to kickstart its presence in the U.S. Subsequently, creators on TikTok began promoting the app using similar positive language. In late March, over 350 videos related to “Lemon8” appeared on TikTok within 24 hours, with most of them offering favorable reviews. Some creators even mentioned downloading Lemon8 as a precautionary measure in case TikTok faced a ban.
Notably, none of the videos we observed at the time were marked as sponsored content, creating the perception that Lemon8 was growing organically through word-of-mouth recommendations.
However, TikTok was not banned in the U.S., although it did face restrictions on certain government devices, at some universities, and in Montana, starting in January 2024 (with the latter facing legal challenges). Even if TikTok eventually encounters a ban or is compelled to sell its operations, Lemon8 does not seem to be a straightforward replacement. Furthermore, most of Lemon8’s installs were driven by “spikes” rather than a sustained upward trend, possibly due to the TikTok viral effect.
iOS accounted for the majority of U.S. downloads, at 2.5 million, and the app held the No. 2 position in the Lifestyle category on the U.S. App Store. However, it fluctuated in the Top Overall chart, ranking at No. 90 when the data was collected. Currently, it sits at No. 70 on the Top Apps Chart in the U.S. Despite its decent rankings, the total number of installs remains relatively low for an app intended as a potential TikTok replacement in the event of a ban.
In September 2023, Lemon8 experienced its most significant month in terms of U.S. downloads, with 525,000 new installs. However, it’s important to note that downloads do not necessarily translate to active users, so Lemon8’s actual user base is likely even smaller. By comparison, as of March 2023, TikTok boasted more than 150 million monthly active users in the U.S.
Nonetheless, there remains a possibility that ByteDance could utilize TikTok once again to boost Lemon8’s popularity in the U.S. Recently, product intelligence firm Watchful.ai revealed that TikTok was developing a feature that would enable users to sync their Lemon8 posts to TikTok and enhance them using TikTok’s editor. TikTok has not commented on this matter when asked.
At the time of the report, Lemon8 had accumulated approximately 25 million worldwide downloads, according to market intelligence firm data.ai.
Currently, its most significant markets in terms of total downloads are Japan (7.6 million), Thailand (6.5 million), and the U.S. (2.6 million).
