The Puzzle: Two Names, a Single Suspect

Enter „short tv” in an app store and you are shown a swarm of lookalikes, a Chinese studio’s press history and, somewhere in the middle, a hit app named ShortMax. The puzzle this file sets out to untangle is exactly that tangle. The main theory is simple: the ShortTV brand that a Chinese producer announced for the US, Canada and Australia and the app now sold as ShortMax are one and the same. Strong as the theory is, it is not proven, since no official rename announcement has turned up. Rather than mydrama website taking anyone’s word for it, we will walk through the public records one clue at a time. Each piece of evidence is small on its own, and the weight comes from how neatly they line up. Even more usefully, by the end you should be able to avoid installing the wrong short tv drama app, as well as judge the claim yourself.

First Clue: The Package Name on Android

A package name, the fixed internal ID, comes with every Android app, and it rarely changes even when the storefront title does. ShortMax’s Google Play listing uses the package live.shorttv.apps. For a brand named ShortMax, this is an odd choice, unless the app began under another name. App developers usually set the package ID at the very beginning, before marketing settles on a final title. A package that spells out „shorttv” is therefore the kind of fingerprint that survives a rebrand. By itself, though, a package name only suggests a history; it does not document one. Anyone can confirm this clue in seconds, because the ID also appears in the web address of the Play listing.

Clue Two: The Entity on Record

Buried in the fine print of both app stores lies the second clue. In the App Store, ShortMax’s seller is SHORTTV LIMITED. Google Play shows the developer as SHORTMAX LIMITED, but the legal entity behind it is once more SHORTTV LIMITED, with an address in the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong. The company’s terms of service, too, are governed by Hong Kong law. Renaming a consumer product while keeping the original company name is a familiar pattern in app publishing. That does not prove the brands are the same, but it puts ShortTV’s name on the contract you accept when you pay for ShortMax.

Third Clue: When It Launched

The third thread concerns timing. According to Baidu’s encyclopedia entry, ShortTV launched in September 2023. In the same month, ShortMax appeared: Google Play gives September 3, 2023 and the App Store gives September 11, 2023. The overlap is explained more simply by one product that launched once and later operated under a new name. Near-identical names on two unrelated brands debuting within the same few weeks would be a remarkable coincidence. China Daily was still referring to Jiuzhou’s English-market app as ShortTV in January 2024, a few months after that launch. That said, a shared month is circumstantial, which is why it matters mainly in combination with the other clues.

Fourth Clue: The Domain Redirect

Clue number four is the easiest to check, because it happens in your browser. As of September 2026, anyone who opens shortmax.com gets sent to shorttv.live by a permanent 301 redirect. The same dramas the app streams are available to browse on the destination site in a web browser. Businesses normally point a domain only at property they control, so the redirect links both names to one operator. A permanent redirect like this is not an accident of search results but a deliberate server setting. Although nobody has written it down in a press release, this is the closest thing in this file to a signed statement.

The Fifth Clue: The Copyright Footer

A page footer is the last piece of evidence. Copyright notices tend to name the entity that actually owns the content and the site. One ShortMax page on the shorttv.live site carries the line „© 2024 SHORTTV LIMITED”. The pattern is hard to read any other way once this is taken together with the package name, the seller, the launch month and the redirect. That said, careful readers should treat the rename as likely but unconfirmed. The company might describe its brands differently in the future, and no official announcement of a switch from ShortTV to ShortMax could be found.

Who Is Behind It: Jiuzhou Culture

The company behind the ShortTV name is Jiuzhou Culture, a Chinese short-drama producer. Per a January 2024 report in China Daily, Jiuzhou launched two overseas apps: 99TV for Southeast Asia and ShortTV for the US, Canada and Australia. More than 600 mini-dramas for overseas markets had been produced by Jiuzhou, the same report said. About 80% were dubbed adaptations of Chinese productions, and the remaining 20% were original overseas shoots. The company placed the cost of a 70-episode short series at $100,000 to $150,000. That mix is the reason the catalog holds both dubbed Chinese stories and locally shot originals. Treat those numbers as a snapshot rather than a current tally, because they date from early 2024. ShortMax’s own listing now claims more than 50,000 dramas in 19 languages, a company figure that has not been independently audited. The ownership trail running through SHORTTV LIMITED is what connects this studio to the ShortMax brand you see in stores today.

The Look-Alike Apps Problem

Here the case gets messier, because the short tv name is not protected in app store search. None of the apps with nearly identical titles from several unrelated developers is connected to Jiuzhou or ShortMax. Any one of these can easily end up installed instead by someone looking for a shorts app from the ShortTV team. The developer field is the only place the differences show up, and most people never look at it. The developer names recorded in the store listings appear in the table as of September 2026. Use the developer name, not the icon or title, as the real ID.

The Price of It

Pricing follows the ShortMax listing, since ShortTV and ShortMax appear to be one product. As of September 2026, the Weekly Pass Pro in the US App Store costs about $19.99 per week, while a cheaper tier sits at about $9.99. Prices vary by country, platform and promotion, and one-time purchases run from about $3.49 to $24.99. Because the US store lists only weekly passes, monthly or annual plans could not be confirmed. Passes are renewed automatically 24 hours before they expire, according to the terms, and refunds are denied unless the service is unusable because of ShortMax. Through its own replies on Google Play, the developer admits that its „free trial” wording confused some users. Reviewers on the App Store also complain about episodes costing up to 60 coins without clear pricing up front. To cancel, use the App Store or Google Play subscription settings, because deleting the app does not stop the billing.

Before You Tap Install: A Quick Checklist

Most mix-ups can be prevented by a handful of checks that take less than a minute. The point is to confirm you are getting the Jiuzhou-linked app and not a look-alike. Pricing traps also become easier to spot before you start a short series you cannot afford to finish. A site that offers modded versions or „unlimited coins” is pushing something unofficial and risky, so stay away from it. You do not need special tools for any of these steps, only the store page itself. Before you tap install, run through the list below.

1. Check that the developer or seller reads SHORTTV LIMITED or SHORTMAX LIMITED.
2. Check the install count on Google Play reads 100M+.
3. Open the in-app purchase list to see current weekly pass prices in your country.
4. Remember that passes keep renewing automatically until you cancel in your store settings.
5. Avoid any app whose developer name matches none of the above, however similar the title.