As TikTok’s chief executive was getting grilled by lawmakers last week about the app’s relationship to Beijing, with some even calling for a ban, the company’s Chinese owner was sending a message to Americans who regularly make and publish posts on social media: Come join our new app.
“ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, invites you to become a launching creator on their new Lemon8 platform before it officially rolls out in the United States!” said one of the messages sent to creators last week from marketing companies hired by ByteDance to do the outreach.
The notes and linked materials, which were reviewed by The New York Times, declared Lemon8’s ambition to become a top global social media service and cited the success of its “sister company TikTok.” It added that the platform, which has already been quietly introduced on app stores, used “the same recommendation engine that helps TikTok succeed.” It will initially focus on topics like fashion, healthy food and wellness.
The outreach is a sign that ByteDance appears undeterred in its ambitions to become one of the top makers of apps in the world, including in the United States, despite the growing calls in Washington to ban TikTok or force the company’s Chinese owners to sell it. TikTok has amassed 150 million U.S. users, and ByteDance appears eager to replicate its success with Lemon8.
But lawmakers and regulators may have similar concerns about Lemon8 as they do with TikTok, which has become a central battleground between the United States and China over technological and economic might. Washington officials have said TikTok poses a national security risk, citing concerns that Beijing could gain access to sensitive data about the app’s users, like location information, or that China could use TikTok’s content recommendations for misinformation.
“It’s a social media platform like Instagram, it has to do with gathering information on users and it has the same ownership structure,…
