ByteDance, the “App Factory,” was able to create the globally popular TikTok, and has been striving to replicate another TikTok overseas.
In May, according to reports from Business Insider and other media outlets, ByteDance seems to be brewing another content application for its largest overseas market after aggressively promoting its new lifestyle social media platform, Lemon8, in the United States.
According to a document released by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), ByteDance’s subsidiary, Lemon Inc., has submitted a trademark application for “8th Note Press.” The product and service list registered by 8th Note Press includes “publishing e-books, audiobooks, and physical books,” “a social platform for reading, downloading, and discussing e-books,” and “retail bookstore services,” among others.
While ByteDance achieved record-high overall profits last year, TikTok’s losses have been expanding. It is likely that ByteDance is eager to find new ways to profit from hundreds of millions of overseas users.
In May, ByteDance’s overseas version of “XiaoHongShu” (Little Red Book), Lemon8, was officially launched in the United States. Influential key opinion leaders (KOLs) with millions of social media followers have yet to join this platform, but its popularity has already been hyped by the media.
“Lemon8 is a new platform, like a mix of Pinterest and Instagram. It is still being shaped by users, so it’s hard to say which direction it will take,” said British fashion blogger @stickler_for_style (Instagram account) to Xia Guang She. In mid-April, her fans mentioned Lemon8 in their Instagram stories, so she decided to join the platform and has just started creating content, but hasn’t gained influence yet.
Apart from TikTok, both Lemon8, which has gained recent attention, and CapCut (the overseas version of Jianying), with over 200 million monthly active users, have yet to explore monetization models. These seemingly popular apps struggle to get users to pay for their services.
