Short Dramas Stories Ratings Watch on Any Device
The Puzzle: One Suspect, Two Names
Enter “short tv” into an app store and you find a swarm of lookalikes, a Chinese studio’s press history and, somewhere in the middle, a hit app named ShortMax. The case this file tries to untangle is exactly that tangle. Put simply, the working hypothesis is that the ShortTV brand a Chinese producer announced for the US, Canada and Australia and The Billionaire’s Contract Lover short drama the app now sold as ShortMax are one and the same. It is a strong theory, yet it is not proven, since no official rename announcement has surfaced. That is why we will walk through the public records one clue at a time instead of taking anyone’s word for it. Each clue is small on its own, and the weight comes from how neatly they line up. When you reach the end, you should be able to judge the claim on your own and, even more usefully, steer clear of installing the wrong short tv drama app.
Clue One: The Android Package ID
The package name is a fixed internal ID carried by every Android app, and it seldom changes even when the storefront title does. ShortMax’s listing on Google Play uses the package live.shorttv.apps. That is an odd choice for a brand called ShortMax, unless the app started life under another name. Developers typically set the package ID at the very beginning, before marketing settles on a final title. A package name that spells out “shorttv” is therefore the kind of fingerprint that survives a rebrand. The package name, on its own, does not document a history; it only suggests one. Anyone can check this clue in seconds: the ID also shows up in the web address of the Play listing.
Clue Two: The Legal Entity Behind It
Both app stores’ fine print contains the second clue. The App Store lists SHORTTV LIMITED as ShortMax’s seller. Over on Google Play the developer is displayed as SHORTMAX LIMITED, while the legal entity behind it is again SHORTTV LIMITED, with an address in the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong. Hong Kong law also governs its terms of service. It is common for studios to rename their consumer product while keeping the original company name, a pattern familiar in app publishing. It puts ShortTV’s name on the contract you accept when you pay for ShortMax, even though it does not prove the brands are the same.
Third Clue: The Launch Month
The third thread comes down to timing. Baidu’s encyclopedia entry dates ShortTV’s launch to September 2023. The same month saw ShortMax appear, with Google Play giving September 3, 2023 and the App Store listing September 11, 2023. Two unrelated brands with near-identical names debuting within the same few weeks would be a striking coincidence. The overlap is explained more simply by one product that launched once and later traded under a new name. As late as January 2024, a few months after that launch, China Daily was still referring to Jiuzhou’s English-market app as ShortTV. Even so, a shared month is circumstantial, so it matters mainly in combination with the other clues.
The Fourth Clue: The Web Domain Redirect
Of all the clues, the fourth is the easiest to verify, since it happens in your browser. As of September 2026, anyone visiting shortmax.com gets sent to shorttv.live through a permanent 301 redirect. On that destination site you can browse online the same dramas the app streams. The redirect links both names to one operator, because companies normally point a domain only at property they control. A permanent redirect is a deliberate server setting, not an accident of search results. This is the closest thing in this file to a signed statement, even though nobody has written it down in a press release.
The Fifth Clue: The Copyright Notice
The last piece of evidence is a footer. The name in a copyright notice tends to be the one that actually owns the content and the site. On the shorttv.live site, a ShortMax page shows the line “© 2024 SHORTTV LIMITED”. Place the package name, the seller, the launch month and the redirect next to it, and the pattern is hard to read any other way. That said, careful readers should treat the rename as likely but unconfirmed. No official announcement of a switch from ShortTV to ShortMax could be found, and the company might describe its brands differently in the future.
Who Is Behind It: Jiuzhou Culture
The company that stands behind the ShortTV name is Jiuzhou Culture, a Chinese short-drama producer. According to a January 2024 report in China Daily, Jiuzhou launched two overseas apps: 99TV for Southeast Asia and ShortTV for the US, Canada and Australia. Over 600 mini-dramas for overseas markets had been made by Jiuzhou, according to the same report. About 80% were dubbed adaptations of Chinese productions, and the remaining 20% were original shoots made overseas. According to the company’s figures, the cost of a 70-episode short series came to $100,000 to $150,000. That mix explains why the catalog holds both dubbed Chinese stories and locally shot originals. More than 50,000 dramas in 19 languages is what ShortMax’s own listing now claims, a company figure that has not been independently audited. Coming from early 2024, those numbers should be treated as a snapshot rather than a current tally. This studio is connected to the ShortMax brand you see in stores today through the ownership trail through SHORTTV LIMITED.
The Trouble With Look-Alike Apps
Because the short tv name is not protected in app store search, the case becomes messier here. None of the apps with nearly identical titles from several unrelated developers is connected to Jiuzhou or ShortMax. Most people never look at the developer field, and that is the only place the differences show up. Anyone looking for a shorts app from the ShortTV team can easily install one of these instead. The developer names recorded in the store listings appear in the table as of September 2026. Treat the developer name, not the icon or title, as the real ID.
| App name in store | Developer or seller name | Platform | Installs recorded | Tie to Jiuzhou’s ShortTV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ShortMax (package live.shorttv.apps) | SHORTTV LIMITED, Hong Kong | Both iOS and Android | 100M+ on Google Play | Likely the same app; the rename is unconfirmed |
| ShortTV: Watch Drama Shorts | HUNG LAM INVESTMENT AND CONSTRUCTION JSC | Android | 1M+ | No connection |
| Short TV – Drama & Shorts | BullFX | Android | Not shown | Unrelated |
| Shortv | Instant Shadow Limited | iOS | Not shown | Unrelated |
How Much It Costs
Pricing follows the ShortMax listing, because 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. Single purchases run from about $3.49 to $24.99, and prices differ by country, platform and promotion. Since the US store lists only weekly passes, monthly or annual plans could not be confirmed. According to the terms, passes are renewed automatically 24 hours before they expire, and refunds are denied unless the service is unusable because of ShortMax. Its “free trial” wording confused some users, which the developer’s own replies on Google Play admit. Episodes that cost up to 60 coins without clear pricing up front are also a complaint from App Store reviewers. Deleting the app does not stop the billing; cancelling happens in the App Store or Google Play subscription settings.
Before You Install: A Quick Checklist
Taking less than a minute, a few checks head off most mix-ups. Making sure you are getting the Jiuzhou-linked app and not a look-alike is the goal. Pricing traps also become easier to spot before you start a short series you cannot afford to finish. You do not need special tools for any of these steps, only the store page itself. Because they are unofficial and risky, stay away from any site offering modded versions or “unlimited coins”. Run through the list below before you tap install.
- Make sure that the developer or seller reads SHORTTV LIMITED or SHORTMAX LIMITED.
- Verify that the Google Play install count sits at 100M+.
- To see current weekly pass prices in your country, check the in-app purchase list.
- Keep in mind that passes renew automatically until you cancel in your store settings.
- No matter how similar the title looks, skip any app whose developer name matches none of the above.