从番茄到红果，张超和他的“狼群”崛起字节

Core Insights - The article discusses the rapid growth and strategic developments of ByteDance's short drama business, particularly focusing on the "Hongguo" short drama app and its recent expansions with new apps "Muyu" and "Xianing" [2][4][15] - Zhang Chao, a key figure in ByteDance, has been instrumental in the success of both the Hongguo short drama and the Tomato novel platforms, employing a "wolf pack" strategy to capture market share [10][16] Group 1: Business Developments - ByteDance launched two new free short drama apps, "Muyu" and "Xianing," alongside the flagship "Hongguo," indicating a strategy to operate multiple brands within the same user category [2][4] - The "Short Drama Copyright Center" was established to centralize content supply and decision-making for all short drama collaborations within the Douyin ecosystem [2][8] - As of June 2023, Hongguo's monthly active users (MAU) surpassed 200 million, while the overall short drama market reached 696 million users, with a growth rate of approximately 5.1% in the first half of 2025 [2][7] Group 2: Strategic Approaches - The "wolf pack" strategy employed by Hongguo aims to maximize user acquisition in a market showing signs of slowing growth, focusing on capturing remaining incremental space [3][15] - The integration of multiple apps under a unified content supply model allows for efficient resource utilization and maximizes advertising revenue [8][14] - The free content model, which relies on advertising for monetization, has proven successful for both Hongguo and Tomato, creating a competitive advantage that is difficult for other companies to replicate [11][16] Group 3: Market Position and Competition - The competitive landscape is shifting, with Hongguo surpassing traditional video platforms like Youku in monthly active users, indicating a potential threat to long-form video content [15][16] - Other platforms, such as Kuaishou, are struggling to maintain their market position against ByteDance's aggressive expansion in the short drama sector [15] - The article highlights the challenges faced by competitors in adapting to the dominant free drama model established by ByteDance, which has led to a significant shift in market dynamics [15][16]