The Puzzle: Two Names, a Single Suspect
A search for “short tv” in an app store returns a crowd of lookalikes, the press history of a Chinese studio and, buried somewhere in the middle, a hit app called ShortMax. Untangling that tangle is the whole case this file takes on. The working 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. No official rename announcement has surfaced, so this theory, though strong, is not proven. Rather than taking anyone’s word for it, we will go through the public records one clue at a time. On its own, each clue is small; the strength comes watch Stolen By My Fianc S Uncle from how neatly they fit together. By the end, you should be able to judge the claim on your own and, even more usefully, avoid installing the wrong short tv drama app.
Clue One: The Android Package Name
Each Android app carries a package name, a fixed internal ID that rarely changes even when the storefront title does. ShortMax’s listing on Google Play uses the package live.shorttv.apps. It is an odd choice for a brand called ShortMax, unless the app started life under another name. At the very beginning, before marketing settles on a final title, developers usually choose the package ID. So a package that spells out “shorttv” is precisely the kind of fingerprint that survives a rebrand. Anyone can verify this clue in seconds: the ID also appears in the web address of the Play listing. However, a package name on its own only suggests a history but does not document one.
Second Clue: The Entity on Record
The fine print of both app stores holds the second clue. On the App Store, ShortMax’s seller is SHORTTV LIMITED. While Google Play shows the developer as SHORTMAX LIMITED, the legal entity behind it is again SHORTTV LIMITED, with an address in the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong. Its terms of service, as well, 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.
The Third Clue: The Launch Month
The third thread concerns timing. Baidu’s online encyclopedia entry dates ShortTV’s launch to September 2023. That same month, ShortMax arrived: Google Play gives September 3, 2023 and the App Store lists September 11, 2023. Two unrelated brands with near-identical names debuting within the same few weeks would be a notable coincidence. The overlap is more simply explained by one product that launched once and later traded under a new name. A few months after that launch, in January 2024, China Daily was still referring to Jiuzhou’s English-market app as ShortTV. That said, a shared month is circumstantial, which is why it matters mainly in combination with the other clues.
Fourth Clue: The Web Domain Redirect
Clue number four is the easiest to check, because it happens in your browser. As of September 2026, opening shortmax.com triggers a permanent 301 redirect to shorttv.live. At the destination site you can browse online the same dramas the app streams. Businesses normally point a domain only at property they control, so the redirect connects both names to one operator. A permanent redirect is a deliberate server setting, not an accident of search results. Even though nobody has written it down in a press release, this is the closest thing in this file to a signed statement.
Clue Five: The Copyright Notice
A page footer is the final piece of evidence. Copyright lines tend to name the entity that actually owns the content and the site. On the shorttv.live site, a ShortMax page displays the line “© 2024 SHORTTV LIMITED”. Place the package name, the seller, the launch month and the redirect alongside it, and the pattern is hard to read any other way. That said, careful readers should treat the rename as likely but unconfirmed. Nobody could find an official announcement of a switch from ShortTV to ShortMax, and the company might describe its brands differently in the future.
Who Runs It: Jiuzhou Culture
The company 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. More than 600 mini-dramas for overseas markets had been made by Jiuzhou, according to the same report. About 80% of those titles were dubbed adaptations of Chinese productions, and the remaining 20% were original overseas shoots. Each 70-episode short series cost, by the company’s figures, $100,000 to $150,000. This mix explains why the catalog holds both dubbed Chinese stories and locally shot originals. Over 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 that runs through SHORTTV LIMITED.
The Trouble With Look-Alike Apps
Here the case gets messier, because the short tv name is not protected in app store search. Apps with nearly identical titles are published by several unrelated developers, and none of them is connected to Jiuzhou or ShortMax. Only the developer field, which most people never read, shows the differences. Someone looking for a shorts app from the ShortTV team can easily install one of these instead. Below, you will find the developer names recorded in the store listings as of September 2026. The real ID is the developer name, not the icon or title.
| App name in the store | Developer or seller name | Available on | Installs | Tie to Jiuzhou’s ShortTV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ShortMax (package live.shorttv.apps) | SHORTTV LIMITED, Hong Kong | Android and iOS | 100M+ in Google Play | Likely the same app; rename not confirmed |
| ShortTV: Watch Drama Shorts | HUNG LAM INVESTMENT AND CONSTRUCTION JSC | Android | 1M+ | Not related |
| Short TV – Drama & Shorts | BullFX | Android | Not listed | Not related |
| Shortv | Instant Shadow Limited | iOS | Not recorded | Unrelated |
How Much It Costs
Given that ShortTV and ShortMax appear to be one product, pricing follows the ShortMax listing. In the US App Store as of September 2026, the Weekly Pass Pro is priced at about $19.99 a week, with a cheaper tier at about $9.99. Since the US store lists only weekly passes, monthly or annual plans could not be verified. One-time purchases run from about $3.49 to $24.99, with prices varying by country, platform and promotion. Under the terms, passes renew automatically 24 hours before they expire, and refunds are refused unless the service is unusable because of ShortMax. In 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. Your App Store or Google Play subscription settings are where cancelling happens, and deleting the app does not stop the billing.
Before You Tap Install: A Quick Checklist
The majority of mix-ups can be avoided with a few checks that take less than a minute. The goal is to confirm you are getting the Jiuzhou-linked app and not a look-alike. It also helps you spot the pricing traps before you start a short series you cannot afford to finish. None of these steps needs special tools, only the store page itself. Any site offering modded versions or “unlimited coins” is pushing something unofficial and risky, so stay away from it. Before you tap install, work through the list below.
- Verify the developer or seller is listed as SHORTTV LIMITED or SHORTMAX LIMITED.
- Confirm that the install count on Google Play is at 100M+.
- Open the in-app purchase list to see current weekly pass prices in your country.
- Remember 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.