TikTok's New Social App Whee Struggles to Gain Traction
Earlier this month, TikTok launched a new social app called Whee, an Instagram-like service designed for sharing photos with friends. Whee offers features similar to Instagram, such as photo filters and messaging capabilities. However, the future of Whee is uncertain, as the app has seen relatively few downloads and has yet to utilize Apple’s Search Ads for promotion, according to new data from app intelligence firm Appfigures.
New apps often remain largely invisible on today's App Store without significant marketing support. This appears to be the case for Whee, which quietly launched on June 18 in 71 countries worldwide. Due to the lack of promotion, Whee did not make its way into the Top Free Apps chart on Apple’s App Store, nor did it immediately become one of the Top 500 Social apps in its supported markets, though this later changed.
According to Appfigures, ByteDance has not yet attempted to advertise Whee via Apple’s Search Ads, which help apps rank highly when App Store users search for apps using specific keywords. There has been no Apple Search Ads activity associated with Whee as of yet, the firm found. Additionally, user feedback from those who discovered Whee has been tepid, with the app receiving an overall rating of 3.6 out of 5 globally, based on 31 App Store ratings, only 10 of which include reviews.
ByteDance has not commented on its plans for Whee, but the timing of the app's launch has raised eyebrows, given that President Biden officially signed the TikTok ban into law in late April after the House passed a revised bill that forced either a TikTok ban or sale. TikTok has since sued the U.S. to block the law from taking effect, which will delay the ban for some time while the legality is worked out in the courts.
The launch of Whee could be a backup plan for ByteDance to maintain a social presence in the U.S. if the TikTok ban is upheld. This is not the first time ByteDance has tried to generate interest in other social apps outside of TikTok. Earlier in 2023, the company quietly launched another Instagram-like app, Lemon8, in the U.S. and U.K., even paying TikTok influencers to post about the app to seed its initial content. Those efforts did not immediately pay off; by November 2023, the app’s U.S. downloads on iOS had only reached 2.5 million—impressive for a new startup, but nothing close to the scale of TikTok, which boasts over a billion monthly active users, including 170 million in the U.S. However, Lemon8 may be a slow-burn attempt at growth. Today, it is the No. 2 Lifestyle app in the U.S., with nearly 7.7 million iOS installs in this market.
ByteDance also operates another popular video app, CapCut, which is often used for creating TikTok videos. Additionally, it briefly explored a BeReal rival, TikTok Now, although that project was shut down after less than a year. Currently, ByteDance is testing another Instagram competitor, TikTok Notes.
Whether Whee will follow the same playbook as Lemon8 remains to be seen. But if your favorite TikTok influencer starts randomly mentioning Whee in the future, it is likely they were paid to do so.
The countries where Whee has been downloaded the most include Malaysia with 2,400 downloads, Turkey with 2,200 downloads, Saudi Arabia with 1,000 downloads, Peru with 900 downloads, and Indonesia with 800 downloads.
Overall, the strategy ByteDance will employ to position Whee and its potential path forward remains uncertain. However, the involvement of TikTok influencers could potentially change the app’s fortunes in the competitive social media landscape.
