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Little Persimmon Video - Latest TV Show & Movie Watch Log Collection · Run Jian Li

A shell app called "Little Persimmon Video": can't play videos, forces five-star ratings, survived four months by piggybacking on a pirated brand name

What it is Titled "Little Persimmon Video," it's actually an iOS shell app for logging TV shows. After opening, it forces you to give five stars, watch ads, and download other apps before "unlocking" it, and you still can't get in in the end.

Why it blew up The pirated video app "Xiaoshizi" (小柿子) was pushed over and over on short-video platforms. Its real disguised builds kept getting wiped by Apple, so users just searched the brand name in the store and found this same-named shell that can't play anything, which makes it harder to take down.

DHow you could follow it Don't copy it. What's worth borrowing is the method: a term that's hot on short-video but has no stable App in the store leaves its search traffic empty. Build a real product for that crowd around the category term, like a free legal content aggregator or a good drama-tracking calendar.

Grade D: it rides on someone else's brand, forces five-star ratings and pushes downloads. The accounts are one-off, a handful of same-named shells already crowd the space, and its ranking dropped from 65 to 161 in two weeks. The idea of search interception is worth knowing, but there's no legitimate version worth investing in. Almost nobody knows about this yet

Data (updated daily) · First launch 2026-07-16 · China ratings 2,592 · Charted in 11-08 of 1 stores: iOS · best category chart rank · by store
Data 2026-10-28 → 2026-11-08 (12 days, 12 observations). Lower rank is higher; gaps mean it wasn't charted that day
iOS · Rating count · China
Data 2026-10-28 → 2026-11-08 (12 days, 12 observations). Apple doesn't publish download counts; rating growth is a proxy for downloads.

Search "小柿子" in the China App Store and the top result is "小柿子影视" with a 4.7 rating from 2,570 reviews. It can't play any shows; its own store listing says it "contains no video playback, download or caching features." Users open it, are asked to give five stars, then watch ads, then are sent to download apps from those ads, and even after that they still can't get in. It was listed in Jul 16, its version has been stuck at 1.1, and it was still live in Nov 6. It has no product. What it has is a distribution play: take the name of a popular pirate brand, then use a compliant shell to dodge takedowns.

A review that only says "666"

In Nov 2, someone gave it five stars with the title "设置反馈" (settings feedback), and the body was just three characters: "666".

That's a code phrase. The real "Xiaoshizi" is a well-known pirate video aggregator. Its Android and TV versions are distributed as apk files from its own website. The iOS version uses "disguised listings": it first gets approved under a shell that has nothing to do with video, such as "字理归序" or "网状笔记". Once installed, the user types 666 into the feedback box and the app turns into a video player. TikTok has accounts that post series titled "××—Xiaoshizi iOS latest disguised listing," with single videos getting between a thousand and sixty thousand views. Bilibili, YouTube Shorts and Instagram have similar content.

This user thought they had installed a real disguised build, followed a tutorial, and typed 666 into the feedback box. What they had installed was something else.

What happens after you open it

Dozens of reviews describe the same flow (China App Store reviews, July to November):

"You have to give five stars before you can open it. Then you watch a 30-second splash ad to get in, then watch a 30-second ad to unlock features, and after three rounds it says unlock failed" (10-16)
"I downloaded one app and then another one is playing Russian nesting dolls with me" (10-26)
"You need a good rating to use it, so the rating rate is very high" (10-24)
"Tricks you into downloading apps so you can watch, then the downloads don't work and it keeps making you watch ads. It's a scam" (11-01)
"Tap in and it's a viewing-impressions writing page…" (07-27)

This last review reveals the one real thing inside: a Korean drama tracking tool where you can save episodes, rate them and write reviews. That's also the identity it registers in the store, under the English name DramaNoteTaker. The title says "小柿子影视" and the description says "drama tracker," but what users get is a wall of ads.

Many of the five-star reviews are actually cursing it: "Trash, this is really trash, and it still asks for a good review." Most of the remaining five-star reviews are a single word: "good," "ok," "five." No review says it actually plays anything.

How fast it grew: ratings rising, rank falling

Date	Cumulative China ratings	Entertainment Top Free
10-28	2,112	#65
10-30	2,257	#92
11-02	2,369	#131
11-06	2,540	#161

(App Store daily data; 11-06 store API shows 2,570 ratings, average 4.7)

It gained 283 ratings in a little over a week, while its rank kept sliding. The two aren't contradictory: a normal app might get one rating per hundred downloads, but this one forces every person who opens it to rate it once. So rising ratings only mean people are still installing it, and fewer and fewer are doing so. 2,500 ratings probably reflect a few thousand to tens of thousands of downloads (estimate, unverifiable).

Where users come from: other people's promotion, its traffic

Store search interception is the main channel. The real Xiaoshizi was pushed relentlessly on short-video and directory sites, so "小柿子" became a term many people remember. But the shell names for the real disguised builds are odd and obscure, change often, and get taken down fast. A directory site's late-October list of four disguised builds (字理归序, 网状笔记, 规符速检, 心境流光) had all been removed by Nov 6, and the site owner wrote in the comments, "Apple's midnight purge took them all down," "They've cleaned out several waves already." Users can't find the shell names, so they search "小柿子" directly in the App Store, and what comes up is this app, with "小柿子影视" written right in its title. Many review titles say "小柿子," so these users came for that exact term.

It never appeared in any traffic video or directory site itself. Others did the promotion; it just took the search results. A commenter on the directory site complained: "Search gives a bunch of them, then after the download it's none of them."

Forced five-star ratings lift its ranking. With 4.7 stars across more than two thousand ratings, it looks the most "legitimate" among a row of same-named apps, so clicks and downloads land on it.

Paid acquisition: not found, probably not needed. Apple Search Ads and Chinese feed ads aren't visible from outside (unverified).

Where the money comes from

No in-app purchases; the money comes from ads: splash ads, 30-second rewarded videos, and the most lucrative one, "download an app from the ad and log in to unlock." That last type pays per download or activation, which is far more than a single ad view, and a user is asked to install several apps, each one adding another payout. Which ad network it uses and what each unit pays was not found.

Costs are close to zero: package size 11.7 MB, no updates since listing, no content library, servers or bandwidth. The developer "润剑李" is a personal account with this as its only app. The privacy policy is a Tencent Docs page, and the privacy label says "no data collected," which doesn't match an app stuffed with ads.

Who it's competing with

It's just one part of an assembly line.

App	Launched	Scale (China store ratings)	Notes
Xiaoshizi Video - Brand-new TV and movie tracker and watch log (this post)	2026-07-16	2,570	Personal account "润剑李"
Xiaoshizi Video - Xiaoshizi Xiaoning Drama Streaming	2026-07-23	422	Personal account "永恒夏", with a nearly word-for-word identical description and an extra nod to "小柠檬"
Xiao Shizi Film & TV - Great Movies Updated Daily	2026-07-07	33	Personal account "梦琪裴", with the description rewritten as "game info compilation"
Dashi Dui Drama Sweet Pomelo Drama Chaser	2026-07-13	126	Piggybacks on "大师兄" and "甜柚", sells a ¥18 membership, and reviews say buyers still can't watch anything
Xiaoshizi official disguised builds	Swapped out every few weeks	Unknown	Actually plays pirated content, shell names unrelated to video, lasts days to weeks
Taobao "小柿子纯净版"	2026	¥8 per copy	Sells installation packages
iQiyi / Tencent Video / Youku	Years	Top players	Legitimate paid services; these shells are aimed at people who don't want to pay

All three "小柿子影视" listings went up in July, under three personal accounts with different names, and their versions are all stuck at 1.1. There's no direct evidence that the same group made them, but the template and rhythm are identical (inference).

Why it lasted four months

First, it grabbed an empty brand term. Xiaoshizi was pushed relentlessly on short-video, yet there was no long-running App on iOS actually named Xiaoshizi. It filled that slot.

Second, Apple's purges of pirate builds ended up helping it. The real disguised builds were wiped out wave after wave, and searching the brand name left only these same-named shells that can't play anything.

Third, because it can't play anything, it's hard to take down. It hosts no pirated shows, so infringement complaints and review are hard to pin on it. Real disguised builds lasted a few weeks; it has lasted four months.

Fourth, monetization is fast. Users walk in to ads and download tasks, and by the time they realize they've been tricked, the money from the first download has already been paid out.

Its real violations are elsewhere: forced good reviews and a false privacy label, both covered in Apple's App Review Guidelines (5.6.1, 1.1.6). Once someone reports it, it will be removed; nobody has reported it yet.

If it were you

D, worth knowing about but don't follow it. What you can learn is an observation method, not a business. The play itself depends on someone else's brand, forced five-star reviews and pushed downloads, and each developer account is one-off. The same kind of shell has already been stacked up by several companies since July, and its ranking dropped from 65 to 161 in two weeks. The window is closing.

Who it suits: People working on App Store search optimization, who can use it as a case study: a term that's hot on short-video but has no stable matching App in the store leaves its search traffic empty.

Who it doesn't suit: Anyone who wants to copy it. What you'd copy is account bans, possible trademark disputes, and a pile of "scam, don't trust it" reviews. It's also not a good entry point for the China video-streaming market: people with real demand want free pirated viewing, which no compliant product can offer.

How to do it (if you really want something from it): Borrow the observation legitimately. Watch for terms that keep showing up on short-video but have no stable App in the store, and build a real product for that audience, such as a legal free content aggregator, or a genuinely useful drama calendar or watchlist tool. Use the category term in the title, not someone else's brand name.

How to get users: Store search is the main channel, so put category terms people actually search for in the title and subtitle. Let the product earn ratings; don't use forced pop-ups.

When to get in: There's no window to race for. The window for riding a same-named shell depends on when Apple cleans up, which is not in your hands.

What would mean this read is wrong: ① If several of these same-named shells are still live into early 2027 and their ratings keep rising, that would show Apple basically isn't policing "can't-play, name-riding shells," and this pipeline earns more than described here (still not something to follow, just a sign this judgment was conservative); ② If someone builds real retention by using a compliant drama-tracking tool that owns a category term next to a hot term like "小柿子," that would show the "borrow a hot term to build a real product" path is wider than estimated here.

iOS store page ↗

Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report

Competitors

Name	Where	Launched	Scale	How it differs from this one
Xiaoshizi official iOS disguise pack (Zili Guixu, Wangzhuang Biji, Guifu Sujian, Xinjing Liuguang)	iOS	Swapped out every few weeks	Unverified; all 11-06 lookups are delisted	Really plays pirated content, disguised name unrelated to film/TV, switches via secret code, short-lived; this one can't play anything, but used the brand name directly and survived 4 months
Xiaoshizi Android / TV version	Other	Years	Unverified; heavily reposted on third-party download sites	Real pirate aggregator playback; this one just borrowed the name
Taobao resale of Xiaoshizi pure edition	Other	2026	¥8 per copy	Sells the install package for a fee; this one is free and monetizes via ads and CPA
Dashi Dui Drama Sweet Pomelo Drama Chaser	iOS	2026-07-13	cn store 126 ratings	Also piggybacks on the name, but monetizes with a ¥18 membership
影视大全-就是片全 / Wukong Browser	iOS	2018 / 2024	cn store ~1.1M / 990k ratings	Big aggregator with real content; this one has no content at all
iQiyi / Tencent Video / Youku	Big-company features	Years	Top players	Legit paid service; this one hijacks people who don't want to pay and look for piracy
Drama calendar / Apollo / Douban	iOS	From ¥2022	Small to top-tier	A real watch-tracking tool; it just borrowed the category's description to pass review

Where users come from

Confirmed App Store search hijacking the brand keyword "Xiaoshizi": title is literally "Xiaoshizi Movies"; reviews are full of "Xiaoshizi"; the real disguised-package names are obscure, and all 11-06 have been delisted; Ruifenxiang's comments say "search gives a pile of them, but after download none are right"
Confirmed Promotes the real Xiaoshizi via short-video / navigation sites (free ride): TikTok @zrgbms's "XX — Xiaoshizi iOS latest disguised listing" series (1k to 60k plays per video), plus similar videos on YouTube, Instagram, and Bilibili; this content pushes the real disguised app, not this one
Confirmed Forced five-star ratings to inflate search ranking and conversion: dozens of cn-store reviews say "must give five stars to unlock" and "need a good rating to use, so the good-rating rate is high"
Inferred Paid acquisition (Apple Search Ads / feed ads): not found; our database doesn't cover it

Xiaoshizi Movies - all-new TV & movie watch log (iOS id6791060014): a front that uses a pirate brand name to capture App Store search traffic, with "forced five stars + watch ads to unlock"

App Store: apps.apple.com/cn/app/id6791060014. Developer "润剑李" is a personal account with only these 1 apps. Released on 2026-07-16, Entertainment category, free, 4+. Size 11.7 MB, last updated version 1.1 (2026-07-17) and never updated since. English localized name: DramaNoteTaker.
Privacy label says "no data collected"; the privacy policy is a Tencent Doc (docs.qq.com/doc/DWUZ1cVhmakJhQ2Nq).
Research date 2026-11-06. Checked the cn store: in our database it only has rankings and ratings in cn.

Bottom line

It is not a real "Xiaoshizi Movies" disguised package, nor a watch-tracking tool. It writes the pirate movie brand "Xiaoshizi" straight into its title, capturing people who search "Xiaoshizi" on the App Store. After opening, users are first forced to give five stars, then asked to watch rewarded ads and download other apps to "unlock," and most of the time never get in. The money comes from ads and CPA (pay-per-install).

It has survived 4 months for two reasons:

The package has no playback function at all, and the store description explicitly says "no video playback, downloading, or caching," so review and takedown reports have a hard time catching its infringement.
Real "Xiaoshizi" disguised packages get cleared by Apple in batches every few days to weeks. After each clearing, searching "Xiaoshizi" often leaves users with only this one.

The 2540 ratings and 4.7 score were forced out with five-star prompts. They don't mean many downloads, let alone that the product is good. It ranked by distribution tactics plus the timing of the pirate brand's packages being cleared; the product itself has no value.

1. What it actually is (evidence)

Store page: the description reads "K-drama tracking, favorites, ratings, and reviews," with a closing note: "no video playback, download, or caching features, no streaming service." But the title is "Xiaoshizi Movies." "Xiaoshizi" is a well-known pirate film aggregator app:

Android / TV builds are distributed as apk files on sites like app.xszys.pro;
iOS relies on "disguised listings + secret-code switching" (e.g., entering 666);
On Taobao, sellers offer "Xiaoshizi Movies Android/Apple iOS pure edition, no ads, 4K Blu-ray" for ¥8 a copy (taobao.com/list/item/SFA1RUQySFVMRC9KVUhldmVYVUJRdz09.htm).

User reviews (App Store cn RSS, 2026-07-21 to 11-05, first 10 pages pulled):

Dozens of reviews describe the same flow. On opening, you're asked for a five-star review, then a full-screen ad and 30-second rewarded ad, then "download the app in the ad and log in to unlock." After downloading, you're still stuck on the unlock page or get "unlock failed," and the loop repeats.
Sample quotes:
- "Must give five stars before you can unlock content" (10-28)
- "Need five stars before it opens, then watch a 30-second splash ad to enter, then watch a 30-second ad to unlock features, after watching three times it says unlock failed" (10-16)
- "Downloaded one, and there's another one playing Russian nesting dolls with me" (10-26)
- "Need a good rating to use, so the good-rating rate is high" (10-24)
- "Tapping in just gives you a place to write viewing notes…" (07-27, confirming it's really just an empty shell with a record feature)
Many five-star reviewers trash it in the text, e.g., "garbage, this is really trash, and it still asks for a good review" and "even after the good review it doesn't work." Empty five-star reviews dominate: "good," "666," "five."
Not a single review shows it can actually play anything. Only two or three positive reviews sound like promotional copy, such as "picture so clear I can see… the details, the developer came out to be praised" (10-28).

Compared with real disguised packages:

The hardcore guide (yinghezhinan.com/ios-app/) and Ruifenxiang (rzkai.com/4442.html, 2026-10-27) both list real "Xiaoshizi" iOS disguised packages, all using shell names unrelated to film/TV: Zili Guixu id6823544033, Wangzhuang Biji id6800316959; comments also mention Guifu Sujian id6822728083 and Xinjing Liuguang id6822222107. After installing, typing 666 under "Feedback" switches it into the real app.
2026-11-06 checked via iTunes lookup: all 4 of these ids are delisted. The hardcore guide's operator wrote in the comments: "Apple cleaned house at dawn, all taken down" and "they've cleared several waves already."
This app doesn't appear in any navigation site's list. A Ruifenxiang commenter complained: "search gives a pile of them, but after download none are right."

Judgment: this app is an ad farm riding the "Xiaoshizi" brand, not an official disguised package. The card's recall reason calls it a "front version of the Xiaoshizi pirate product," which isn't accurate: there is no evidence about whether it has any connection to the Xiaoshizi operators.

2. Growth data

appstore database, cn store: ratings count 10-28 is 2112,11-06 is 2540. Daily gain 27–101,7; over 283 days. iTunes lookup 11-06 shows 2570 ratings, average 4.7.
Anomaly: ratings keep growing steadily while its Entertainment Top Free rank keeps sliding: 10-28 #65,10-30 #92,11-02 #131,11-06 #161.
Explanation: every user who opens this app is pushed to rate it, so the "ratings per download" ratio is far above normal apps (normally below 1%). That means the 2540 ratings may correspond to only a few thousand to tens of thousands of downloads, unverified. Rating growth can't be read as download growth. The falling rank shows downloads are declining while ratings still climb, because nearly every new user leaves a rating.
Sister shells (iTunes lookup 11-06):
- "Xiaoshizi Movies - Xiaoshizi Xiaolemon Drama Tracker" id6791414859, developer 永恒夏, released 07-23, 422 ratings, reviews likewise mention "to unlock" and "can't get in at all";
- "Xiaoshizi Movies - Good Films Updated Daily" id6787923293, developer 梦琪裴, released 07-07, 33 ratings, "all ads."
The developers of all three shells are personal accounts under different names. They were listed in a cluster in July, and the version numbers all stopped at 1.1.

3. Where users come from

Search hijacking via store traffic (main channel, confirmed): accounts like TikTok @zrgbms have posted a steady series of "XX — Xiaoshizi iOS latest disguised listing" short videos (1k to 60k plays each, per TikHub search). YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and Bilibili have similar videos. This content has taught many people the word "Xiaoshizi." Real disguised package names are obscure, change often, and are frequently cleared, so when users search "Xiaoshizi" directly on the App Store, they land on this app with "Xiaoshizi Movies" in its title. In reviews, many titles are just "Xiaoshizi," showing users came for that word. This app itself doesn't appear in any traffic videos or navigation sites.
Forced five-star ratings to lift search ranking and conversion (confirmed, dozens of reviews). 4.7 stars plus 2500 more ratings make it look the most "legit" in search results, which lets it outrank other shells with the same name.
Paid ads: not checked. Apple Search Ads and domestic feed ads aren't in our database. Judging by its scale, it hardly needs paid promotion; unverified.

4. Where the money comes from

No in-app purchases. The money comes from ad networks: splash screens, rewarded videos, and mainly "download an ad app and log in to unlock." That last one is CPA or activation billing, paying far more per unit than display ads. Users are typically asked to install several apps, and each install triggers another CPA payout. Which ad network and the per-unit rate haven't been verified.

This approach is cheap to run: 11.7 MB package, no updates after launch, no video sources, servers or bandwidth needed. Takedown risk is also low, since it doesn't actually play pirated content. The real risks are elsewhere: forced 5-star reviews violate App Store Review Guidelines 5.6.1 and 1.1.6, and the privacy label "Data Not Collected" doesn't match an app running ad SDKs.

5. Competitors (doing the same thing = meeting the "free shows on iPhone / find Xiaoshizi" demand)

Name	Where	Launched	Scale	How it differs
Xiaoshizi Official Disguise Pack (Zili Guixu, Wangzhuang Biji, Guifu Sujian, Xinjing Liuguang, etc.)	iOS	Swapped out every few weeks	Not verified; 11-06 all taken down	Actually plays pirated sources, switching via a code phrase; the shell name has nothing to do with the shows, so short lifespan. This app can't play anything, but uses the brand name directly as its title, so longer lifespan
Xiaoshizi Android / TV version	Android apk, TV	Years	Not verified (heavily reposted on third-party download sites)	Real pirated aggregation playback. This app only borrows its name
Taobao "Xiaoshizi pure version" resale	Other	2026	¥8 per copy	Sells cracked installer packages for a fee. This app is free and monetizes through ads
Xiaoshizi Movies - Xiaoshizi Xiaolemon Binge Tracker (id6791414859)	iOS	2026-07-23	422 ratings	Same template, different developer account. Besides Xiaoshizi, it also piggybacks on the "Xiaolemon" brand
Xiaoshizi Movies - Good Shows Updated Daily (id6787923293)	iOS	2026-07-07	33 ratings	Same-name shell; description reads "game info aggregator" and only carries ads
Dashixiong Binge - Yiantian Youzhui (id6786186282)	iOS	2026-07-13	126 ratings	Rides the "Dashixiong" and "Tianyou" brands, switches monetization to a ¥18 membership, and reviews say you can't watch even after buying
Movie Encyclopedia - Just Full Movies (id1361963529), Wukong Browser	iOS	2018 / 2024	1.1M / 990k ratings	Mainstream catalogs or gray-area aggregators. This app has no content at all
iQiyi / Tencent Video / Youku	iOS	Years	Top players	Legitimate paid services. This app captures people who don't want to pay
TV show calendars, Apollo, Douban	iOS	From ¥2022	Small to top-tier	Real binge-tracking tools. This app only borrows the category's description to pass review

6. Why it took off

Brand-term grab: the real "Xiaoshizi" is repeatedly promoted on TikTok, Bilibili and navigation sites, yet no long-lived iOS app named "Xiaoshizi" exists. This app occupies that gap (review titles are mostly "Xiaoshizi").
Pirate brand cleanup actually helped it: real disguised packages were wiped by Apple over several rounds (per the Hardcore Guide site owner's comments), leaving users searching the brand name with only these non-playing same-name shells.
Survives because it doesn't play: the description explicitly says no playback, and the package only contains a tracking UI, so infringement complaints and review are hard to land. 07-16 still live since launch; real shells usually last only days to weeks.
Forced 5-star prompts push the rating to 4.7 and 2500 ratings, which looks credible in search results and outranks same-name competitors.
Short monetization chain: users arrive and get ads plus CPA right away. By the time they realize they've been duped, the first CPA has already settled.

7. Differentiation

No product differentiation: no content, and no truly usable features. The only "edge" is distribution: borrowing a pirate brand's name to capture search traffic, then using a compliant empty shell to dodge takedowns. That's why it runs, but the method is name-squatting, forced reviews and false privacy claims. Not sustainable, not replicable.

8. Visibility and copycats

Visibility: almost nobody is paying attention. Revenue is not public, X (x-radar library, 60 days) has no related posts, and no media has covered it. Public discussion is about the real "Xiaoshizi" itself; nobody singles out this name-squatting shell. Users' "scammers, don't download" in review sections is the only public feedback.
Copycats: it is itself one of a same-name shell assembly line; peers include id6791414859, id6787923293, Tianyou / Dashixiong, all launched around July under different individual accounts.

9. Takeaways

The only legitimate takeaway: if a brand term has high search volume on short-video platforms but no stable matching App Store app exists, that brand term's search traffic sits unclaimed. The legitimate play is a real alternative for that audience, such as a legal free-content aggregator or a show calendar. Name-squatting, forced reviews and paywalled unlocks that violate Apple's guidelines: don't copy.

10. Uncertain

Real download numbers and ad / CPA revenue.
Which ad network it uses, and the per-unit rate.
Whether the three same-name shells come from the same team (developer names differ, but launch timing and templates are nearly identical, suggesting one team).
Any link to the Xiaoshizi operators (no evidence).
How long it can keep going.

Sources

appstore library (agent-im server, app_profile / app_day, cn store, 2026-10-28 to 11-06)
iTunes lookup and App Store cn-store review RSS (2026-11-06 crawl)
App Store page apps.apple.com/cn/app/id6791060014
Hardcore Guide yinghezhinan.com/ios-app/; Rui Share www.rzkai.com/4442.html; gkhhh.com/716.html; ipapark.com/41232.html
Xiaoshizi Android site app.xszys.pro/; Taobao ¥8 product page (see above)
TikTok (TikHub search "小柿子ios", account @zrgbms series videos)
x-radar search "小柿子", 0 posts in 60 days

This article was written by AI from public data and the data we collect daily. Numbers are sourced, and inferences are labeled.