Find out why everyone on Tiktok is obsessed with this new ByteDance App
Product intelligence firm Watchful.ai reports that TikTok is integrating with Lemon8, another social app owned by ByteDance, its Beijing-based parent company. The apparent new relationship allows TikTok to build a tool that lets users sync Lemon8 uploads and add sounds and music using its editor.
Watchful says it employs computer vision, machine learning methods, and flow analysis of publicly available data to recognize and imitate app changes, but it could not give screenshots. As it has done many times, Watchful can find features before they launch. It just discovered TikTok features including the AI chatbot Tako, a Shop feed, video stickers, and more in development.
Multiple requests for comment from TikTok went unanswered.
Lemon8 quickly soared up the App Store charts earlier this year as U.S. politicians considered a TikTok ban or forced sale. The lifestyle social network began in arch 2020 but was boosted on TikTok this spring.
After many influencers made positive videos advertising Lemon8 as a Pinterest-Instagram hybrid, the app “went viral” on TikTok with strange timing. None of the videos we saw were sponsored or advertising. This forced popularity put Lemon8 in the Top 10 Overall apps in the U.S. App Store for several days in March 2023.Before this, ByteDance paid TikTok producers to post about Lemon8 to seed its U.S. user base and content, Insider claimed.
ByteDance seems to be hoping Lemon8 would attract U.S. users if TikTok was banned.
If the cross-posting feature does come out, ByteDance can use TikTok again to promote Lemon8, generating more installs and uptake. Whether the cross-pollination capability will appear or is only being considered is uncertain.
Market intelligence firm data.ai estimates 25 million Lemon8 downloads worldwide. Thailand (36%), Japan (24%), Indonesia (21%), Malaysia (7.2%), and the U.S. (7%), are its top 5 install markets.
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