TikTok sister app Lemon8 surges in US popularity despite ties to China

Another mobile app from TikTok-parent ByteDance is gaining traction in the U.S., despite growing national security concerns over the company’s ties to China.

Aimed straight Gen Z audience, the app features a mix of TikTok-like videos and Instagram-like photos.

Until recently, Lemon8, which has been around since 2020, had never ranked in the Top 200 Overall Charts in the U.S., according to app store intelligence from data.ai.

Now Lemon8 has been installed 17 million times globally, including 650,000 downloads in the U.S. in the past week and a half alone. Japan is the app’s biggest market, representing 36.5% of lifetime downloads, according to Axios.

Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot and MusicThinkTank, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a Berklee College Of Music professor.