ByteDance again looks to TikTok to promote its other social app, Lemon8 | TechCrunch

TikTok seems to be engaged on an integration with Lemon8, one other social app owned by TikTok’s Beijing-based father or mother firm, ByteDance, based on new findings from product intelligence agency Watchful.ai. The obvious new partnership sees TikTok creating a characteristic that might enable customers to sync their Lemon8 posts to TikTok, then add sounds and music to the posts utilizing TikTok’s editor.

Watchful couldn’t present screenshots of the characteristic in query, however notes that its methodology makes use of a mix of laptop imaginative and prescient, machine studying algorithms, and stream evaluation of publicly out there information to establish and emulate app adjustments. That permits Watchful to find options earlier than they launch publicly, because it has achieved many occasions earlier than. Most just lately,  it uncovered TikTok options in improvement just like the AI chatbot Tako, a dedicated Shop feed, video stickers and extra.

TikTok didn’t reply to a number of requests for touch upon the matter.

Lemon8, as it’s possible you’ll recall, rapidly rose up the App Store charts earlier this year across the identical time that U.S. lawmakers have been discussing shifting ahead with a TikTok ban or pressured sale. The app, a way of life social community, had initially launched in arch 2020 however was artificially inflated on TikTok this spring.

With suspicious timing, the app “went viral” on TikTok’s video platform after quite a few influencers posted optimistic movies selling Lemon8 utilizing comparable language describing it as a mixture of Pinterest and Instagram. Not one of the movies we got here throughout at the time indicated they have been sponsored content material or advertisements. This pressured recognition, in flip, pushed Lemon8 into the Prime 10 Total apps within the U.S. App Retailer for a number of days in March 2023.

Forward of this, Insider reported that ByteDance had been paying creators to publish about Lemon8 on TikTok to seed its preliminary U.S. person base and content material.

From the appears to be like of issues, it appeared that ByteDance’s hope was that Lemon8 may function one thing of a backup plan to achieve U.S. customers’ engagement and a focus within the occasion of a full TikTok ban.

If the newly noticed cross-posting characteristic does, in reality, roll out extra publicly, ByteDance would be capable to leverage TikTok as soon as once more to additional achieve consideration for Lemon8, driving new installs and adoption. Nonetheless, it’s unclear presently if or when the cross-pollination characteristic will launch, or whether or not it’s solely one thing into account for now.

At present, Lemon8 has 25 million estimated worldwide downloads, per market intelligence agency data.ai. Its high 5 markets are Thailand (36% of installs), Japan (24%), Indonesia (21%), Malaysia (7.2%), and the U.S. (7%).