by By Whitney Conaghan
While United States lawmakers debate a TikTok ban, Lemon8, owned by TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, is peeling back the layers of traditional social networking. The app was initially launched in Japan in 2020, but it wasn’t available in the U.S. until February 2023. In the past month, it’s become the second most-downloaded lifestyle app in the U.S. — following right behind Pinterest.
Finding the perfect blend
Pinterest is a popular destination for users seeking inspiration on various topics. Often users visit the platform, swiftly find the desired inspiration, and exit the app. Thus, Pinterest seems to fall short in its ability to possess the same captivating allure found on platforms like Instagram or TikTok. That’s where Lemon8 comes in. The App Store describes Lemon8 as a place for creatives to share a diversity of content from fashion, makeup, food, and travel, to homewares, pets and anything else they can imagine.
As a video and photo-sharing platform, Lemon8 takes a unique approach by ditching the traditional TikTok scrolling style and adopting a Pinterest board format. But, both TikTok and Lemon8 share a common ground in their utilization of following and “For You” tabs, which showcase posts from creators and curate a personalized selection of content aligned with your interests. Located across the top of your screen, Lemon8’s content is sectioned into tabs like fashion, beauty, food, wellness, travel, home and all. Posts can be swipeable photo collections with text placed on top of the image.
A new culture for creators
Lemon8 enables influencers — particularly in the food and fashion space — to “tag” their purchase and disclose their prices. The app’s content is designed to inspire users to make purchases, aiming to emulate the style of their favorite influencers.
Distinguishing between organic content and sponsored posts are challenging, as Lemon8 seems to embrace this blending as the norm. TikTok heavily features sponsored content, but it generally includes clear markings in the bottom-left corner, ensuring full disclosure of intentions. While Lemon8 thrives on influencer collaborations and promotions, the distinction between sponsored and non-sponsored material may require a more discerning eye.
Content creators and influencers are sharing aesthetic pictures and infographics on the app, using carefully selected fonts, pastel colors and long-form captions. Many are repurposing their TikTok content for this new app to leverage their existing platform. But, the hesitancy of macro influencers to join this platform is likely explainable by the lack of content monetization.
The million-dollar question
Should brands and creators take to Lemon8? Based on TikTok experience, being an early adopter can undoubtedly provide an edge over creators and brands who take to the platform later. But not every social app can withstand the test of time. As rumors of a U.S. TikTok ban continues to circulate, Lemon8’s success in the market can lead down two distinct directions: encourage creators to lobby politicians and stop the ban that would prohibit TikTok and Lemon8, or encourage the government to act quickly.
Investing time in researching Lemon8’s content trends can provide valuable insights that allow you to repurpose your existing content effectively. So while incorporating another social app may seem like a needless addition, the knowledge gained from delving into the beginning stages of a social media app can allow brands and creators to maximize their impact and connect with a fresh audience in a meaningful way.
Whitney Conaghan is a senior public relations student at the University of Oregon. Connect with Whitney on LinkedIn or visit her website to view more of her work.
Hi Whitney,
I’ve never heard of this app before, but it sounds really interesting. Definitely, an app that I can see myself getting influenced into getting. I liked the end of your blog when you suggested that adding a new app into the social media industry can be a good way to understand the beginning stages of a social media app, that is a great outlook to it that I probably would not have thought of.
I’d never heard of the Lemon8 app before, but I’m a huge fan after reading this blog post! I’ve thought for a long time that TikTok should add a feature similar to Pinterest boards. I save so many videos with the intention of coming back to them later, but they inevitably end up lost among the hundreds of other videos I save/like. I love that Lemon8 organizes its interface in a category style, so that users can easily find specific content and videos. I will definitely download this app and give it a try!
Hi Whitney,
This was a super interesting read. I never heard of this app before, but as someone who loves both TikTok and Pinterest, I’m interested to see what it is all about now after reading your blog. It’s interesting that you mention the current political environment surrounding apps like TikTok and how that’ll affect social media platform development in the future. If anything, Lemon8 proves that with such a great desire for these creative outlets, people will continue to create new apps or find ways to interact with social media regardless of government intervention.
^^^ Megan O’Keefe wrote this message by Devon Antinoro
This was my first time hearing about Lemon8, and I enjoyed your insight and explanation of this new platform. It is interesting that they are combining popular formatting styles of Pinterest and Tik Tok. Sponsorships blending in more on Lemon8, as you explained, seems as though it may create a more seamless space for creators, but it may be hard to decipher what content is sponsored. It’ll be interesting to see where this platform goes in the future. As you mentioned, it is hard to predict which social platforms will take off and which will become stagnant.
Hi Whitney!
Great post and what an interesting read. I have not heard of Lemon8 before reading your piece, but I am so interested in learning more about this platform because I am such an avid Pinterest user. I think it is a really interesting time for creators with all things TikTok happening in our government. I am interested in seeing the longevity of certain creators and how they will pivot to these circumstances.
I’ve also never heard of Lemon8 before. I love Pinterest so reading your article makes me very interested in looking more into Lemon8. It’s interesting that it has a connection to TikTok because of all the stuff happening with TikTok right now. I like how you talk about the “For You” tabs. Because although TikTok is the king of “For You” tabs, they are not the only app that uses it now. Many apps followed in TikToks footsteps. So I think that Lemon8 having a “for you” tab isn’t as much of a selling point as it used to be. Overall great article! Very interesting!