The app strikes an important resemblance to Xiaohongshu, a Chinese language social media platform with 260M MAUs

Amid a wave of heated debate over whether or not TikTok ought to be banned, one other ByteDance product, Lemon8, has popped up and shortly climbed into the highest 10 on America’s app shops.

Lemon8’s sudden rise is paying homage to TikTok’s early-day development. On the time Vine had already pioneered brief video sharing within the U.S., however TikTok took the media format to the subsequent stage by means of its content material suggestion algorithms, a system that had confirmed immensely profitable in China for its sister app, Douyin.

Some trade observers are actually describing Lemon8 as one thing on the crossroad of Instagram, Pinterest and Amazon, however these accustomed to the Chinese language web ecosystem would instantly acknowledge that the app is an occasion of “copy-from-China”.

For a lot of China’s early web historical past, entrepreneurs discovered inspiration in developments with sturdy momentum within the U.S. and construct one thing comparable in China, giving rise to the nation’s solutions to Google, Fb and the likes. That apply remains to be right here, as indicated by the clutch of firms that specific their ambitions to turn into China’s OpenAI; however a reversal of the pattern can also be taking form as China’s homegrown tech expertise turns into extra subtle and give you more and more novel providers that don’t but exist overseas.

At a look, Lemon8’s photo-heavy structure and peer-to-peer evaluations strike an important resemblance to Xiaohongshu, the Chinese language social commerce platform with 260 million month-to-month energetic customers. Xiaohongshu, which suggests “Little Crimson E-book”, has over the previous decade turn into the go-to on-line neighborhood for Chinese language children to study life hacks in areas starting from maternity well being and surviving centralized quarantine in China to discovering the perfect Chinese language eating places in Düsseldorf.

Bike sharing, reside purchasing and social commerce are a simply few Chinese language web enterprise fashions which have discovered customers overseas. Xiaohongshu has dabbled in different Asian markets by means of Uniik and Spark, however neither took off. Now ByteDance is taking the playbook of Xiaohongshu westward, mirroring TikTok has carried out with studying from Douyin’s mannequin again residence.

The Little Crimson Playbook

Picture Credit: Xiaohongshu

Based as a platform for sharing abroad purchasing guides, Xiaohongshu has largely stored its give attention to corralling sensible data. Posts are organized in a Pinterest-like grid however ranked partly by the variety of “saves” they get. And in contrast to Instagram, there’s little competitors to put up essentially the most glamorous pictures. Somewhat, photographs are used to contextualize the notes posted by customers, corresponding to a COVID-19 PCR outcome wanted to board a flight to China.

Somewhat than favoring professionally made influencer posts, the app encourages the invention of long-tail content material and stresses relevance over leisure. When customers are on Xiaohongshu, they’re experiencing what’s known as “zhongcao”, actually “planting grass,” an idea popularized by the platform to convey the impact of wanting to purchase one thing after seeing another person, whether or not a good friend or influencer, recommends it.

Of Xiaohongshu’s 260 million MAUs, 69 million of them are content material creators, the corporate stated at a current occasion. Seventy % of its customers are feminine and born after 1990. Most of its customers reside in China’s extra affluent, top-tier cities. At its peak, the corporate’s valuation reached $20 billion however reportedly dropped to $10-$16 billion final 12 months as China’s tech crackdown dampened investor confidence.

It’s too early to say if Lemon8 can convey the zhongcao tradition to the U.S. and past. For now, a lot of the app’s traction appears to stem largely from splashy ads and influencer endorsement by means of TikTok.

There are additionally indicators that Lemon8 is paying influencers to put up content material. It is a widespread apply seen amongst Chinese language social media platforms, together with Douyin. However this may also be the largest distinction that separates Lemon8 from Xiaohongshu, which has not often shelled out giant subsidies to influencers. Authenticity, many argue, is the explanation why Xiaohongshu’s content material has stood the check of time.

In its infancy, Lemon8 might be nonetheless removed from eager about monetization, nevertheless it’d be fascinating to see what steps it takes to become profitable if and when the app accumulates a large person base. It’d look to Xiaohongshu, which at present monetizes by means of advertisements and e-commerce commissions. After all, it’s by no means straightforward to easily transport an present enterprise mannequin from one nation to a different, be it copy to or from China. Even ByteDance’s mammoth has struggled to evangelize reside purchasing, which is now driving an enormous chunk of Douyin’s China revenues, in Western international locations.