Crazy Red Fruit | Jingwei’s Low‑key Share
Crazy Red Fruit | 【Jingwei Low-key Share】
Content Summary
When you think of Red Fruit, do you still picture cheesy short dramas, ads, domineering CEOs, son‑in‑law tropes, or mother‑in‑law battles? Things have changed: Red Fruit now has over 200 million daily active users, with each person spending nearly three hours scrolling per day. Some people spent almost the entire seven‑day National Holiday watching it.
When you think of Red Fruit, do you still picture cheesy short dramas, ads, domineering CEOs, son‑in‑law tropes, or mother‑in‑law battles? Things have changed: Red Fruit now has over 200 million daily active users, with each person spending nearly three hours scrolling per day. Some people spent almost the entire seven‑day National Holiday watching it, and directors, writers, and university professors have also started following short dramas. This “newly emerging domestic top‑four app” has become the go‑to entertainment for many after work.
Even more exaggerated, Hongguo is becoming global. Chinese short dramas have been translated into dozens of languages and sent to over 200 countries and regions; Thais are remaking them, Hollywood is following suit, and Chinese short‑drama actors can even be greeted by fans at Philippine airports.
Hongguo can move so fast, and it’s not just because it’s “free.” Tomato Novel finds the stories, Seedance creates the visuals, Jianying handles the editing, and Douyin sends the audience over. The content, tools, and traffic that were originally scattered across Byte’s assets are gradually stitched together into a smooth production line.
People used to think short dramas were just a fringe of the internet, but now it seems they may have become a new basic infrastructure of mass entertainment. What people need isn’t necessarily longer stories, just a quicker entry into the next emotional segment. Below, enjoy:
Source |Visual Journal (ID: iiidaily)
Editor | Muse
Chinese short dramas are no longer just Chinese people’s short dramas.
By the end of September 2026, the cumulative total of Chinese micro short dramas overseas was about 290,000 titles, an increase of 287.73% compared with the end of 2025. They have been translated into dozens of languages and appear on screens in more than 200 countries and regions.
Thai creators are doing remakes, Hollywood is making moves, Chinese short‑drama actors are becoming top stars abroad, and in little‑known corners, Chinese short dramas are conquering the world.
Regardless of skin color or language, everyone gets hooked on its 30‑second thrills, 2‑minute episodes, and a life’s worth in an hour.
The world is changing, the ways we tell stories are changing, and short dramas happen to sit in that gap of change.
And the starting point of all this cannot be separated from one platform—
Red Fruit short drama.
“First set the rules, then the road can keep widening.” “It’s a bit pricey, but it doesn’t cause heartburn after eating.”…
This autumn, the whole internet is talking about the “no heartburn” meme.
This meme originates from a batch of AI street‑market skits on Hongguo Shorts, which all use the same script: the protagonist stall owner uses good oil and quality ingredients, but is forced to raise prices due to rising raw‑material costs and gets scolded by loyal customers for being greedy. Seeing this, a neighboring stall owner resorts to cheap ingredients to wage a price war and steal customers.
But the protagonist stall owner would rather see his income drop than betray his conscience. After several twists, the greedy shop backfires, the lost customers line up to return, and finally the owner says, “It’s a bit pricey, but it won’t upset your stomach after you eat it.”
To many people, it’s just another viral meme on the Chinese internet, nothing surprising; it will be phased out in a couple of months.
Little do people know, behind the explosive popularity of “No Heartburn” lies the powerful rise of Hongguo short dramas.
When Hongguo is mentioned, people inevitably picture cheesy short dramas like “Domineering CEO,” “Mother‑in‑law vs Daughter‑in‑law,” “Crooked‑mouth Dragon King,” which are shoddily made, devoid of substance, and never make it to the mainstream.
But a set of the latest data overturns people’s expectations. According to the mobile internet business data platform QuestMobile, as of September 2026, Hongguo short videos have surpassed 200 million daily active users, exceeding the combined daily active users of the four giants “iQiyi, Youku, Tencent Video, and Mango”. Even more striking, the average daily usage time per Hongguo user reaches 165.98 minutes, compared with 112 minutes for Douyin and 82 minutes for WeChat.
The phenomenal popularity of Hongguo prompted even Tencent to jump in, launching the Green Bubble short drama in September 2026, featuring a free short drama.
Even so, the crazy spread of the red fruit is still hard to stop.
This frenzy is not limited to user enthusiasm; it also shows up in global expansion—Hongguo is no longer just a domestic product.
01
Time Killer
Many netizens complain that they stay up all night watching “Red Fruit,” even though they have an 8 a.m. start the next day and need to work, but they just can’t resist the urge to watch. They promise to watch just one more episode and then sleep, but before they know it, morning has arrived.
Even the games are no longer played, TikTok is no longer scrolled, WeChat is no longer chatted—spending the whole day glued to Red Fruit: watching while eating, while slacking at work, lying down before sleep, and right after waking up…
During the morning rush on the subway, seven out of ten people are scrolling Red Fruit; some are so absorbed they miss their stop. On high-speed trains, a casual glance shows few people with eyes closed—most are immersed in Red Fruit short videos.
Especially during the recent National Day holiday, traveling crowds were no longer the main theme; staying at home to watch Hongguo instead became the daily routine for many. Someone binge‑watched more than 700 short episodes on the first day of the holiday, which, even at 1.5 minutes per episode, amounts to about 17.8 hours.
Someone opened his eyes and immediately started watching the Hongguo short drama. With a 7‑day National Day holiday, he watched for all 7 days, didn’t sleep at night, didn’t wake up in the morning, and even skipped fruit and snacks.
Some netizens even noticed that it’s not just them watching; their parents and younger siblings at home are watching too. During meals, at a four‑seat dining table, everyone is clutching a phone scrolling through Hongguo short dramas—one watches a underdog’s comeback, another watches AI comics, and another watches a sweet romance.
Precisely because of this, not only are netizens reminding themselves to quit Hongguo, the Hongguo officials have also rushed to launch an anti‑addiction system, simultaneously introducing “break reminders” and “sleep reminders”. If you exceed the viewing time or open Hongguo late at night, you will be prompted to put down your phone and rest promptly.
Red Fruit even plans to discontinue the coin feature, which was designed to keep users watching for long periods— the more you watch, the more coins you earn, eventually cashable. Many people stay on Red Fruit for hours just to earn an extra few cents.
Looking at other video apps, they all scramble to hijack users’ time and energy, hoping people will stay longer on their platforms. Red Fruit, however, seems to be telling users: stop watching me; it puts a lot of pressure on me.
Who contributed these times? The answer actually surprised everyone.
In many people’s imagination, Hongguo’s audience consists of middle‑aged and elderly people and county‑town workers, but in reality it has long broken out of that specific circle and now reaches everyone.
Even celebrities who seem untouchable to many cannot escape.
In August 2026, renowned director Jia Zhangke posted a Weibo with the opening six bold characters: “Recently watching Hong Guo.” Moreover, he solicited appealing short dramas from the entire internet, looking utterly engrossed.
Not just Jia Zhangke.
Mo Yan also admits that he loves binge‑watching short dramas; whether it’s a son‑in‑law breaking off an engagement or fantasy martial arts, even though the plots are melodramatic and the tropes similar, he still can’t get enough.
A professor from the Chinese department of East China Normal University also accidentally opened a short drama, and then couldn’t stop, started subscribing to membership and staying up late binge‑watching.
People used to say that in the mobile internet era, everyone lives in their own information bubble, but once Hong Guo appeared, everyone was pulled in front of the same screen, watching the same script, staying up the same night, saying the same line “It won’t cause heartburn after eating.”
It blends into many people’s daily lives as naturally as air.
02
Transformed by cheesy short dramas
Why did Hongguo become this popular?
Many people’s first reaction is — free.
That statement is only half correct.
In the Chinese market, free is no longer novel—games are free, books are free, short videos are free… Since most products are free, relying solely on a free strategy makes it difficult to create differentiation, expand the circle, and capture a massive user base.
The core point lies in the short drama itself.
The most talked‑about short series this summer is called “Armed Entry into Song.” It tells the story of five modern special‑operations soldiers who, equipped with a full set of gear, travel back to the Xuanhe era of the Northern Song dynasty and, using contemporary thinking and skills, manage to find their footing in a chaotic world.
It sounds like a typical爽文 (over‑the‑top) opening, yet it is more meticulously crafted than many historical dramas. Take the imperial examination, for example: instead of being glossed over, the series explores it from an ordinary person’s perspective, showing step by step how to buy books, study, take the exam, and eventually enter the court.
Including training troops, defending the city, entering the court, and anti‑enemy tactics, it also faithfully reproduces history and character personalities, making the audience feel as if they are right there. Recently, it went viral again for its divine recreation of Li Qingzhao’s image.
Countless viewers were amazed, realizing that they learned about the real Northern Song dynasty through an AI comic drama.
There’s also the viral hit “Gui Xu” with over a hundred million views online. This AI sci‑fi short series’ worldbuilding, script, visual generation, editing and music were all handled by a single person, yet it achieved a quality comparable to theatrical blockbusters.
After many netizens watched it, their perception of AI animation dramas changed completely, claiming it fully deserves a theatrical release; even People’s Daily stepped in to comment: removing the “AI flavor” with craftsmanship.
Live-action short dramas are the same.
Today’s live-action short dramas are no longer the crooked‑mouth dragon king or vicious mother‑in‑law tropes from six years ago. Their quality has become increasingly refined; both makeup and set design surpass many full‑length series, making them visibly high‑budget productions. As a result, former fans of long‑form dramas are “defecting” to watch two‑minute episodes of these bite‑size shows.
Live‑action short drama “Good Rain Knows the Season”
In the past, when shooting live‑action short dramas, five or six people could film a whole piece in a courtyard within two or three days; the script was plagiarized, the storyboard was a 1:1 copy, the actors were hired on the spot for 400 yuan per day, and the costumes and props could be returned without reason within seven days after ordering.
The whole industry is saturated with a restless vibe; everyone cares not about quality, only about speed.
However, as the number of production companies in the short drama industry increases, the daily output of low‑quality short dramas exceeds demand, prompting more and more people to pursue a premium approach: directors must be professional, actors should be graduates of Beijing Film Academy or Central Academy of Drama, extras need to be seasoned, and costumes, makeup and props must be meticulously crafted.
From May 2026, Jet Li consecutively launched two short dramas “Source Power Jianghu” and “Sword Returns”; in September of the same year, director Guo Jingyu led 29 of his artists to venture into the short‑drama industry; Li Ruotong’s “Madam She Specializes in Defying 4” amassed over seven million pre‑release reservations.
Jet Li stars in the short drama “Source Power Jianghu”
Wu Gang, Tang Guoqiang, Zhong Xintong, Ye Xuan… Whether famous actors or professional teams, they are pouring into the short‑drama industry one after another.
Short drama “Long Road, Original Intent” starring Wu Gang
Of course, the emergence of high‑quality short dramas still cannot explain the phenomenal popularity of Red Fruit. After all, there are many platforms—why do viewers choose to stick with Red Fruit?
This inevitably brings up its behind‑the‑scenes driver—ByteDance.
As everyone knows, ByteDance has built a massive entertainment ecosystem: short videos with Douyin, online novels with Tomato, AI short dramas with Hongguo, each handling its own responsibilities and different content.
So how are they linked together?
First, shoot a short drama; the hardest part has never been the filming, but writing a story that people want to watch. Writers on other platforms have to grind away late into the night, but Hongguo doesn’t have to worry about that, because Tomato Novel is a ready-made script library.
As long as a novel becomes popular on Tomato, its IP will be immediately bought by Hongguo and turned into a soon-to-be-hit short drama.
The “2025 Online Literature IP Conversion Report” shows that among the 664 annual blockbuster short dramas across the internet in 2025, 413 were adapted from Tomato Novel IPs, accounting for 62%. In the top‑50 short‑drama platform rankings, original Tomato IPs even make up 64%.
In other words, Red Fruit doesn’t need to gamble on which drama will become a hit; it only needs to wait for new IPs on the Tomato ranking, and they already come with a loyal audience.
Now that we have the IP, how to shoot?
Seedance.
This is the AI video generation tool from ByteDance. When Seedance 2.0 was released in February 2026, Film Hurricane shot a video to test its performance, foreseeing a massive impact on film‑industry professionals.
Nowadays, many teams and individuals use Seedance to generate AI web series, costing 800–1000 CNY per minute, and can produce a video in about a week. Both in quality and quantity, this delivers a dimensionality‑reduction blow to the traditional film industry.
In addition, Jianying, a tool from ByteDance, is also an indispensable part of the short‑drama industry; people use it to edit clips, generate subtitles, and add music.
The final step is even more crucial: how to bring the short drama in front of the audience.
Now it’s time for Douyin to step in. As the largest short‑video platform in China, millions of users browse movie and drama commentary on Douyin every day; clips from Hongguo short dramas can be mixed in, enticing people to click over to Hongguo to watch the full episodes. Data shows that more than half of Hongguo’s new users come from Douyin.
After that, Hongguo further leverages a trio of free, premium short dramas and coins, firmly keeping users glued to the screen.
No wonder Hongguo becomes the biggest winner.
03
Hongguo’s Overseas Expansion
Not only Chinese are binge-watching short dramas, foreigners are also hooked.
On social platforms, many Chinese tourists traveling abroad are surprised to find locals also holding a phone to watch Chinese short dramas. They watch with great enthusiasm, completely absorbed—watching on the subway, on the bus, even buffering before a flight, and some taxi drivers even watch while driving.
Locals describe: Chinese short dramas are more addictive than TikTok.
Thus, short dramas going overseas became one of the hot trends of 2026.
Data shows that by the end of September 2026, the cumulative total of Chinese overseas micro short dramas was about 290,000 titles, an increase of 287.73% compared to the end of 2025.
To go overseas, Chinese short‑drama teams translate each series into 14 languages such as English, Indonesian, Thai, and then deliver them to more than 200 countries and regions, including the United States, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia.
What’s even more interesting is that with the same script, they also adapt it to local customs, adding another layer. For example, a woman’s comeback: in the United States it should be portrayed with strong emotions, fast pace, personal choice and respect; in Japan it should be about workplace restraint and stepping up at critical moments; in Southeast Asia it should focus on ethical relationships and social hierarchy.
Foreigners not only watch, they also film.
Thailand’s CP Group chose to cooperate with Chinese companies, extensively remaking wildly popular Chinese short dramas, replacing the actors with Thai people, moving the setting to the streets of Bangkok, delivering all lines in Thai, while retaining the scripts. While Chinese make “The Overbearing CEO Falls in Love with Me,” foreigners produce “A Wall Street Financial Tycoon Falls in Love with Cinderella,” “An Oil Magnate Falls in Love with a Cleaner.”
Thai short drama poster
They even launched a talent incubation program, teaching Thai youths to use AI to write scripts, build teams, and produce local short dramas, essentially treating short dramas as a major industry.
Even established Hollywood studios can’t sit still; Fox teamed up with a short‑form drama production company and slated more than 200 short dramas at once, while giants like Universal are also making moves. Behind the trend, monthly active users of U.S. micro‑short dramas are projected to rise from 26 million in 2024 to 66 million in 2025.
The drama went viral, and people went crazy too.
In early 2026, Chinese short‑drama actress Zhang Yingfei became a “national goddess” in the Philippines thanks to the series “True Daughter, She Is a Top Student”.
When she arrived in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, a large number of Filipino fans waited for her at the airport. A local TV morning show invited her as a guest, and a fan meeting held at a mall was packed. Many Filipinos shouted the name of her character in Mandarin, and the mayor of Manila even stepped forward to endorse her, calling her a “real idol”.
Zhang Yingfei is popular in the Philippines
A Chinese short drama actor has such massive influence in Southeast Asia that it would have been unimaginable in the past.
While live-action actors have skyrocketed in popularity, AI actors have also transformed into leading stars.
In June 2026, the AI short drama “The Girl Who Was Fired” was released. The story isn’t new: a small‑town girl, Fang Taozi, arrives in the big city with a modeling dream, gets rejected in auditions, is ostracized by peers, becomes marginalized after refusing shady practices, and ultimately forges her own path.
I never expected this drama to go viral; the first season’s view count exceeded 220 million. AI actor Fang Taizi rode the wave to fame, topped the trending list, and netizens described her as “the AI actor is even hotter than upcoming domestic entertainment stars.”
Even more unexpectedly, the behind‑the‑scenes team created a Douyin account for Fang Taizi. Her self‑introduction says she’s an Aries girl “crafted” on April 1, 2026, 20 years old, 173 cm tall, MBTI ESFP, and she regularly posts morning runs, meals, hand‑gesture dances, outfits… essentially a real‑life celebrity.
The male lead of the same drama, Zhou Yiheng, also opened an account. The two also have a ship account called “Peach Doesn’t Drop Heng”, and a large number of netizens crowd under it to ship them and follow their daily lives.
In July 2026, Fang Taozi even received a commercial advertisement, the client being a colored contact lens product. It is said that her video ad longer than 60 seconds was once priced at 258,000 yuan, more expensive than many real-life influencers with millions of followers.
In 2026, everyone entered an era of simply getting by.
People no longer want to dress up for appearances, nor waste effort maintaining a façade. After work, a simple, mind‑free pleasure at home makes the day feel worthwhile.
From now on, just live simply.
Red Fruit short videos are becoming increasingly popular in this context; they don’t require users to set aside two hours, they don’t expect viewers to remember complex character relationships, and they don’t even ask users to pay a single cent.
People come home exhausted and just want to collapse; it offers a 30‑second thrill and a bizarre story in half an hour.
Edward Yang once said in the film “Yi Yi”: Since the invention of cinema, human life has been extended by at least threefold.
After short dramas emerged, people’s lives seem to have been extended again.
But life is finite, short dramas are infinite; in this seemingly extended life, is it becoming more empty or more fulfilling?
When one short drama finishes, you can move on to the next; the effort and time you put into a short drama won’t be repeated.
From a business perspective, Hongguo has already borne abundant fruit.
And what kind of fruit will the onlookers who have grown alongside Hongguo bear after contributing their own soil and nutrients?
About the author: Vision Diary (ID: iiidaily) records life with words, expresses life with visuals, listens to your joys and sorrows every night, accompanies you through the river of time, and supports the spiritual world of tens of millions of friends. For reprints, please contact (ID: iiidaily) for permission.
Executive Producer: 视觉志
Editor: Muse
Planner: 视觉志
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