Lemon8 gains steam in the face of the imminent blackout in the US of its “big sister” TikTok

The deadline for the (forced) sale of TikTok’s business in the United States expires on January 19. If by that date ByteDance has not yet reached an agreement to divest itself of TikTok’s US subsidiary, the famous social network for short videos will disappear from application stores across the seas. The “blackout” of TikTok in the United States would be a huge blow for ByteDance, which could in any case mitigate the blow thanks to the growing rise of another of its subsidiaries: Lemon8.

Over the past few weeks the popularity of Lemon8an app attached like TikTok to the orbit of ByteDance, has skyrocketed in the app stores and it is currently the second most downloaded free app in the Apple App Store in the United States.

Many TikTokers based in the United States are already preparing for the imminent demise of TikTok in the North American country and that is why they are moving en masse to the “little sister” of the famous social network: Lemon8. By sharing the same parent company, TikTok accounts can be easily transferred to Lemon8 and the user also has the possibility of synchronizing both platforms and simultaneously publishing identical content on both social networks. In addition, Lemon8 is an application based on the same algorithm that governs its “big sister” TikTok and, beyond being very similar in terms of operation to the short video app, it provides users with additional functionalities that can be seen in the mirror platforms like Instagram and Pinterest.

Soon, the massive move of TikTok users to Lemon8 is emerging as the simplest solution to a far-reaching problem that would leave the more than 170 million users that the ByteDance subsidiary currently has in the United States in limbo.. However, if Lemon8 ends up becoming a (more or less unofficial) replacement for TikTok in the North American country, the US authorities could also place this social network under the magnifying glass, whose parent company is, after all, the same as the from the famous short video app.

Lemon8 is also in the sights of the US authorities

In fact, Christopher Krepich, director of the Energy and Commerce Committee of the House of Representatives in the United States, has recently assured in statements to Forbes what TikTok’s ban across the seas could also include Lemon8. Furthermore, in March of last year Cathy McMorris Rodgers, chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, referred not only to TikTok but also to Lemon8 and the video editing app CapCut (also a subsidiary of ByteDance) as platforms that could promote “the interference and manipulation” by foreign governments.

On January 10, the United States Supreme Court will determine in a hearing whether or not the TikTok ban is constitutional. It also remains to be seen if Donald Trump, president-elect of the United States, continues to assert his power to prevent the veto of the ByteDance social network from the other party. For now, the next tenant of the White House has already sent a letter to the Supreme Court in which he expressly requests this court not to apply the law aimed at the disappearance of TikTok in the United States. If Trump is ultimately unable to prevent the veto, he will not take office until January 20, just one day after the deadline for TikTok to divest from its subsidiary in the United States.

Meanwhile, waiting for the Supreme Court to rule on the future of TikTok in the United States, Some candidates interested in taking over the subsidiary of the social network in the North American country have emerged to the surface in recent days. Investors Kevin O’Leary and Frank McCourt have specifically expressed interest in acquiring TikTok’s US subsidiary with the ultimate goal of turning it into a US company. However, ByteDance has always flatly rejected the sale of the US subsidiary of TikTok (even if this ultimately implies the disappearance of this social network in the United States).