Lemon8 describes itself as a “lifestyle community” and features like a mash-up of Pinterest and Instagram. It permits customers to publish, save and share photographs and textual content beneath completely different classes equivalent to style, meals, magnificence, wellness and journey. The photographs are offered in a Pinterest-like twin feed in order that customers can devour a big selection of content material on every scroll.
It launched within the United States in February after beforehand gaining traction in Japan and Thailand. As is the case with any client product launch today, Lemon8 has been paying content material creators to publish 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 grow to be an influencer-driven e-commerce powerhouse in China. As the enterprise capitalist Turner Novak famous in his e-newsletter final 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 acquired sturdy media consideration, content material creators appear lower than enthused concerning the prospect of getting to create content material for yet one more social media platform, particularly one which 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 creator, mentioned in a single video.
So far, this burst of consideration has all of the indicators of a client app hype cycle, mentioned Brendan Gahan, chief innovation officer at Mekanism, a inventive 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 stream of social apps have launched in recent times to a lot media hype solely to peter out and fade into irrelevance.
In May 2021 the app Poparazzi, which allowed you to tag and publish pictures of mates, was No. 1 within the app retailer, however did not retain its person base.
Then Dispo, YouTube star David Dobrik’s Instagram-like platform, broke into the App Store’s prime 10 in March 2021, resulting in a media frenzy. It didn’t final and the app has struggled since to compete.
Other social platforms like Clubhouse, Zynn and Vero have been all briefly No. 1 within the App Store after their launch solely to fall rapidly into obscurity.
Even BeReal, the much-hyped social photo-sharing platform that launched in 2020, is struggling to retain its virality. Though it was capable of garner 53 million downloads in 2022, solely 9 % of customers are energetic day by day, in line 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 adjunct teacher for social media and influencer advertising and marketing at UCLA, mentioned that media “fear of missing out” usually creates these 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 true take a look at will come as soon as Lemon8 stops paying creators and depends on 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 creator with 1.6 million followers, mentioned he heard about Lemon8 after seeing folks speaking about it on TikTok, however is taking a wait-and-see method 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 find yourself gaining traction within the U.S. market, it might show to be one other headache for lawmakers looking for to crack down on China’s affect in our tech ecosystem. Banning particular person apps might find yourself being like enjoying whack-a-mole as extra foreign-owned platforms search to seize the U.S. market.
Though most client merchandise fail to stay as much as the hype they generate at launch, Gahan mentioned that every now and then one catches on, making the technique worthwhile. “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.”