On April 2, it was reported that Chinese short video platform TikTok will shut down its photo-sharing application, TikTok Notes, on May 8. In 2024, this photo-sharing application was tested in Canada, Australia and Vietnam. Currently, TikTok has begun to send service termination notifications to users and guide them to switch to Lemon8, another similar product under ByteDance.
Although the official has not clearly stated the reason for the closure, the industry generally believes that it is related to the weak user growth of TikTok Notes. Data shows that as of December 2024, Lemon8 has reached 12.5 million global monthly active users, showing stronger market appeal.
In the farewell notice to users, TikTok emphasized that this decision was made "after careful consideration" and suggested that users download and save their personal data timely. The notice specifically pointed out: "As a lifestyle application, Lemon8 not only provides an experience similar to that of TikTok Notes, but also has richer functions."
Lemon8, which was first launched in Japan in 2020, has now expanded to the US and Southeast Asian markets. Its interface design, which combines the features of Instagram and Pinterest, along with a powerful set of creative tools, provides users with a photo collection sharing and personalized content browsing experience.
It is worth noting that against the backdrop of TikTok's existential crisis in the US market, ByteDance is actively promoting the strategic transformation of Lemon8. In November last year, the company enabled the feature of directly logging into Lemon8 with a TikTok account and achieved mutual access to picture content between the two platforms.