Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of TikTok who was grilled at a hearing in front of United States legislators previously this year, is apparently being offered an extra brand-new task by moms and dad business ByteDance
According to a report at The Info released on Tuesday (May 30), ByteDance is putting another of its apps, Lemon8, “under Chew’s guidance”.
Pointing out “an individual with direct understanding of the matter,” The Info states the present head of Lemon8, Stephanie Cheng, will now report to Chew, who is based in Singapore.
Lemon8 was formally presented in the United States previously this year, though it has actually been around in some other markets, such as Japan, considering that 2020. According to a New York City Times report, ByteDance worked with influencers this year to get the word out about the brand-new app.
Lemon8 is concentrated on way of life, with its leading trending subjects generally being food, appeal, style, travel and health. Some hypothesize the app is suggested to take on Meta-owned Instagram
If so, Lemon8 has its work cut out for it. Bloomberg reported in October that Instagram has around 2 billion month-to-month active users worldwide.
Lemon8 has actually had actually an approximated 17.3 million downloads around the world considering that its 2020 launch– although it has actually seen quick adoption in the United States this spring, clocking one million downloads in a two-week duration from March to April, according to Expert Intelligence
Lemon8’s user base is likewise a small portion of TikTok users, of which there are an approximated 1.6 billion around the world and a verified 150 million in the United States.
Nevertheless, others hypothesize that Lemon8 may in fact be a replacement for TikTok, ought to the app be prohibited in the United States or other Western nations, as some political leaders have actually required.
At a congressional hearing in March, Chew dealt with four-and-a-half hours of questioning by both Democrat and Republican politician legislators, who grilled him on the business’s information-sharing practices.
Chew stressed out TikTok’s “Operation Texas,” a continuous task to move United States users’ information from servers in China to servers in Texas monitored by Oracle. Nevertheless, he confessed that the Texas center is not yet totally functional, and some ByteDance engineers in China do have access to United States user information.
Previously this month, Montana ended up being the very first United States state to sign into law a straight-out restriction on TikTok, from January 1, 2024. Under this law, app shops that use TikTok to users in Montana might be fined $ 10,000 for every single day that the app is readily available. Users of TikTok do not deal with charges under this law.
TikTok has actually taken legal action versus the state of Montana after Guv Greg Gianforte signed the costs prohibiting the popular short-form video app.
” We wish to assure Montanans that they can continue utilizing TikTok to reveal themselves, earn money, and discover neighborhood as we continue working to protect the rights of our users inside and beyond Montana.”
Brooke Oberwetter, TikTok
Lots of legal specialists have actually questioned the law’s credibility. For something, it’s uncommon for a law to single out a single business for a restriction. Usually, laws prohibit particular kinds of company, or restriction services from engaging particular activities, while Montana’s law specifically targets TikTok.
There is likewise a concern of whether Montana has jurisdiction in this matter, as the law specifies it is suggested to safeguard “nationwide security,” which for the most part is a matter for the federal government.
For its part, TikTok has actually called the law “illegal,” and has actually sworn to combat it as an offense of the totally free speech rights of Montanans.
” We wish to assure Montanans that they can continue utilizing TikTok to reveal themselves, earn money, and discover neighborhood as we continue working to protect the rights of our users inside and beyond Montana,” TikTok representative Brooke Oberwetter stated. Music Service Worldwide