Lemon8, TikTok’s Sister App, Is Growing Fast — but Will It Last?

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The lifestyle app saw its downloads quadruple this summer, as ByteDance tries to keep a toehold in the U.S. market with a looming TikTok ban

Lemon8 TikTok
TikTok and its sister app Lemon8 are both owned by Chinese company ByteDance (Chris Smith/TheWrap)

While TikTok is on the verge of being booted from the U.S., its sister app, Lemon8, is growing rapidly. Could it fill some of the gap left by the ubiquitous short-form video app owned by Chinese company ByteDance and help the company maintain a U.S. foothold?

Since last summer, Lemon8 has more than tripled its user base, hitting 12 million downloads in the United States, which is still less than a 10th of TikTok’s American user base. But several users told TheWrap they’re skeptical that the pictures-and-video social app — which focuses on lifestyle content like beauty, food and travel — will have much staying power as its user base is comprised of almost exclusively women and it is struggling to achieve cross-app sharing among its competitors.

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