BEIJING : TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance is looking for its next big hit by wading deeper into the lifestyle sector of social media with Kesong, a shopping and lifestyle recommendations app similar to market leader Xiaohongshu.
It emulates Xiaohongshu, often likened to Meta Platforms Inc's Instagram and which is widely considered the embodiment of"planting grass" - the notion that reviews can entice readers or followers to buy a product or service. Hardware and software maker ByteDance was valued at around $300 billion in recent trades and has become known as something of an app factory. It has produced a string of hits from news aggregator Toutiao to short video app Douyin and its overseas equivalent TikTok, China's most successful app abroad.
Lemon8 is exploring the possibility of expanding into Australia, two people at the company told Reuters.