What Happened to ByteDance’s Red Candle Stories Fiction App?

ByteDance’s Red Candle Stories was a short-lived paid-fiction experiment. First launched as Red Candle Novel in December 2025, the app combined a small free section with paid memberships, book purchases, and paid chapters. It began winding down in July 2026 and permanently closed its servers on August 17, 2026, after roughly eight months of operation.

Red Candle Stories shutdown timeline

The closure happened in stages rather than all at once:

• July 9, 2026: The app stopped membership top-ups and renewals, book-coin purchases, and purchases of individual chapters or complete books. Existing automatic-renewal subscriptions were also set to stop charging without users needing to cancel manually.
• July 10, 2026: Red Candle Stories stopped updating its fiction catalog and closed its in-app content-consumption functions. Customer support remained available, while the platform began automatically refunding remaining user balances. The announced processing time was within 15 working days, with refund details sent through in-app messages.
• August 17, 2026: The servers were shut down, making it impossible to log in or access the service.

What users experienced after the closure

After the final shutdown, users could no longer use the app even where it remained visible in an Android app store. Reports said Red Candle Stories had disappeared from Apple’s App Store, while some Android storefronts still displayed the app but showed a shutdown notice when it was opened.

The shutdown notice said that unused account assets would be refunded automatically, without a separate application. Users with active automatic renewals were also told that future charges would stop automatically.

How the app differed from Tomato Novel

Red Candle Stories and Tomato Novel represented different approaches to online fiction:

• Tomato Novel: A free-reading service supported by advertising.
• Red Candle Stories: A hybrid service with a limited free section, a membership area, and separately paid books or chapters.

Red Candle Stories therefore targeted readers prepared to pay for selected fiction rather than relying primarily on free access and advertising. Members could read qualifying titles without ads, while other paid long-form web novels were purchased separately at a discount.

The available reporting describes that positioning, but it does not establish a single confirmed reason for the app’s closure. It is more accurate to treat Red Candle Stories as a discontinued paid-reading test than to claim that one specific factor caused its failure.

What membership included

Before the shutdown, the reported membership price was 25 yuan per month. Its advertised benefits included:

• Ad-free, unlimited reading of selected titles in the member area.
• A 20% discount, or payment of 80% of the listed price, on eligible paid long-form web novels.

Because the service is no longer operating, these benefits are no longer available and the app no longer accepts new memberships or paid content purchases.

The short version

Red Candle Stories was ByteDance’s attempt to build a paid fiction product alongside its free Tomato Novel platform. It launched under the Red Candle Novel name at the end of 2025, offered a 25-yuan monthly membership with ad-free member reading and discounts on paid books, and then shut down in three stages: paid functions ended July 9, content access ended July 10, and the servers closed on August 17, 2026.