Report: ByteDance Seems to Be Mixing TikTok With Lemon8

TikTok is apparently attempting to integrate with Lemon8, its sister social media platform.

That’s according to a report Friday (Aug. 11) by TechCrunch, citing information by product intelligence company Watchful.ai. The collaboration appears to involve TikTok creating a feature that lets users sync Lemon8 posts to TikTok, and add sounds and music.

Both companies are owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance. PYMNTS has contacted ByteDance for comment but has not yet gotten a reply.

As PYMNTS noted in April, Lemon8 first debuted in Japan in 2020 and was quietly launched in the U.S. and the U.K. in February of this year. The app gained traction in early April with 650,000 downloads in the U.S. alone, and has continued to grow in spite of the possibility of scrutiny due to the potential restrictions on TikTok.

“In contrast to Instagram and TikTok, which did not depend on paid influencer partnerships during their initial launch, Lemon8 appears to be focusing on creating a commerce and influence-centered environment right from the beginning,” PYMNTS wrote.

Among the creators making money from Lemon8 has been Instagram influencer Beth Bartram, who has garnered almost 350,000 followers in April and told Vogue Business she uses Lemon8 to share fashion inspiration, outfit ideas, fitness tips and style recommendations.

She earns revenue from her posts by partnering with shopping platform LTK and by incorporating both new and recycled content from other social media platforms.

Meanwhile, last week saw reports that TikTok had hired retail executives who had worked with Amazon and Meta to help build its U.S. eCommerce businesses.

That news followed reports from June that the company is working on a major expansion of its eCommerce business, with the aim of growing it from $4.4 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV) to $20 billion, and banking on the U.S., Europe and Southeast Asia to make it happen.

According to the TechCrunch report, Asia is a popular market for Lemon8, whose top four markets are Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia. (The U.S. comes in fifth).

TikTok’s marketplace, TikTok Shop, has seen success in Southeast Asian markets such as Indonesia and Vietnam but has struggled to gain traction in the United Kingdom, where it was launched in 2021.

The plan to expand TikTok’s eCommerce business in the U.S. comes in the face of threats from Washington to ban the app due to concerns about national security.