New Social App From China's ByteDance Soars In US Amid TikTok Ban Calls

TikTok, the popular video-sharing platform, is facing ban calls in many countries, including the United States, where lawmakers grilled its chief executive Shou Chew last week over the company's ties with China. Wary of a stringent action, TikTok's parent company ByteDance has now introduced a new app called Lemon8 in the US, The New York Times (NYT) said in a report. The app was quietly introduced on both Google and Apple's app stores. Lemon8 will initially focus on topics like fashion, healthy food and wellness, said the NYT report.

"ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, invites you to become a launching creator on their new Lemon8 platform before it officially rolls out in the United States," the outlet quoted one of the ByteDance's marketing companies as telling content creators in a message.

The new social media platform aims to become a top global service and cited the success of its "sister company TikTok".

TikTok has amassed 150 million users in the US, and ByteDance appears eager to replicate its success with Lemon8, said NYT.

TechCrunch said Lemon8 jumped into the US app store's top charts on Monday, becoming the No 10 Overall app, across both apps and games.

Citing app store intelligence from data.ai, the outlet said that such a fast move for the app - which is now ahead of YouTube, WhatsApp, Gmail and Facebook in the US - implies a "significant" and "recent" user acquisition push on the app publisher's part.

NYT said the app was launched in Japan in 2020 and reached five million monthly active users worldwide. The company now plans to launch it in other countries like Britain, Singapore and Indonesia.