Lemon8 describes itself as a “lifestyle community” and purposes like a mash-up of Pinterest and Instagram. It lets in customers to post, save and proportion pictures and textual content below other classes akin to model, meals, attractiveness, wellness and commute. The pictures are introduced in a Pinterest-like twin feed in order that customers can devour a wide selection of content material on every scroll.
It introduced in the United States in February after up to now gaining traction in Japan and Thailand. As is the case with any shopper product release at the moment, Lemon8 has been paying content creators to post on the app to generate buzz and engagement.
The platform is a knockoff of Xiaohongshu, or Little Red Book, a Pinterest-like app that has turn into an influencer-driven e-commerce powerhouse in China. As the project capitalist Turner Novak famous in his publication closing month, “while TikTok continues pushing into current events, trends, and live streaming, Lemon8 heads in the opposite direction: evergreen reviews, lifestyle content, text, and photos start eating into the use cases of Reddit, Instagram, and Pinterest.”
Though the app has gained tough media consideration, content material creators appear lower than enthused about the prospect of getting to create content material for but some other social media platform, particularly person who feels pressured down customers’ throats. Ads for Lemon8 have begun working on social apps together with TikTok. “I’ve seen so many of these [Lemon8] videos back to back to back,” Alexandrea Brumfield, a TikTok author, mentioned in one video.
So some distance, this burst of consideration has all the indicators of a shopper app hype cycle, mentioned Brendan Gahan, leader innovation officer at Mekanism, an artistic company that works with content material creators. “It definitely doesn’t seem to have a big user base. It’s been out since February, and it wasn’t in the top 200 on the App store,” he mentioned.
A gradual move of social apps have introduced in contemporary years to a lot media hype handiest to peter out and fade into irrelevance.
In May 2021 the app Poparazzi, which allowed you to tag and post pictures of pals, used to be No. 1 in the app retailer, however did not retain its person base.
Then Dispo, YouTube famous person David Dobrik’s Instagram-like platform, broke into the App Store’s most sensible 10 in March 2021, resulting in a media frenzy. It didn’t closing and the app has struggled since to compete.
Other social platforms like Clubhouse, Zynn and Vero had been all in brief No. 1 in the App Store after their release handiest to fall briefly into obscurity.
Even BeReal, the much-hyped social photo-sharing platform that introduced in 2020, is suffering to retain its virality. Though it used to be ready to garner 53 million downloads in 2022, handiest 9 p.c of customers are lively on a daily basis, in step with Sensor Tower.
“People are very quick to say, [Lemon8] is this huge thing that’s going to blow up,” mentioned Gahan. “I think people forget how difficult it is to create long lasting social apps. They disappear really quickly.”
Lia Haberman, an accessory trainer for social media and influencer advertising and marketing at UCLA, mentioned that media “fear of missing out” steadily creates those frenzies. “It’s a PR strategy in itself these days,” she mentioned. “All you have to do is launch an app and everyone is so desperate to seem like they’re on top of technology trends that they’re going to cover it just for fear of looking like they’re out of touch if they don’t cover it.”
Haberman mentioned the actual check will come as soon as Lemon8 stops paying creators and depends upon natural engagement. “It’s possible [creators] might explore Lemon8, but at the same time you’ve got Pinterest, YouTube Reels, Instagram,” she mentioned. “If people are being paid to post on Lemon8 it’s great for creators, but I find it hard to see how creators are going to embrace this.”
Rod Thill, a TikTok author with 1.6 million fans, mentioned he heard about Lemon8 after seeing other people speaking about it on TikTok, however is taking a wait-and-see manner earlier than diving in. “Once I see enough people using it and showing the features, I’ll catch on,” he mentioned.
“Every social media app is competing with each other, which is making it really difficult for creators,” he added. “The thought of having to make an individual video on each platform is already creating burnout.”
If Lemon8 does finally end up gaining traction in the U.S. marketplace, it might turn out to be some other headache for lawmakers looking for to crack down on China’s affect in our tech ecosystem. Banning particular person apps would possibly finally end up being like taking part in whack-a-mole as extra foreign-owned platforms search to seize the U.S. marketplace.
Though maximum shopper merchandise fail to reside as much as the hype they generate at release, Gahan mentioned that each and every so steadily one catches on, making the technique profitable. “China has really been a leader in social commerce and apps in general,” he mentioned. “It makes sense that companies would try and replicate the success of proven apps and export them to the U.S.”
