The Mystery: One Suspect, Two Names
If you enter “short tv” into an app store, you see a crowd of lookalikes, a Chinese studio’s press history and, somewhere in the middle, a hit app named ShortMax. Untangling that tangle is the whole case this file sets out to crack. The main theory is simple: the ShortTV brand that a Chinese producer Love on the Sidelines online announced for the US, Canada and Australia and the app now sold as ShortMax are one and the same. This theory is strong, but it is not proven, because no official rename announcement has turned up. So instead of taking anyone’s word for it, we will work through the public records one clue at a time. The clues are each small on their own, and the weight comes from how neatly they fit together. 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 Android Package Name
Every Android app has a package name: a fixed internal ID that seldom changes even when the store title does. ShortMax’s Google Play listing uses the package live.shorttv.apps. That’s an unusual choice for a brand called ShortMax, unless the app started life under another name. Developers usually set the package ID at the very beginning, before marketing settles on a final title. The kind of fingerprint that survives a rebrand is therefore a package that spells out “shorttv”. The package name, on its own, does not document any history; it only suggests one. The same ID also appears in the web address of the Play listing, so anyone can confirm this clue in seconds.
Second Clue: The Legal Entity
The next clue sits in the fine print of both app stores. ShortMax’s seller on the App Store is SHORTTV LIMITED. While Google Play shows the developer as SHORTMAX LIMITED, the legal entity behind it is once again SHORTTV LIMITED, with an address in the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong. Hong Kong law also governs the company’s terms of service. Renaming a consumer product while keeping the original company name is a familiar pattern in app publishing. This 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.
Clue Three: When It Launched
Thread number three comes down to timing. Baidu’s online encyclopedia entry dates ShortTV’s launch to September 2023. ShortMax arrived in the same month, with Google Play listing September 3, 2023 and the App Store listing September 11, 2023. A single product that launched once and later traded under a new name explains the overlap more simply. Near-identical names on two unrelated brands debuting within the same few weeks would be a striking coincidence. China Daily was still referring to Jiuzhou’s English-market app as ShortTV in January 2024, a few months after that launch. A shared month is nonetheless circumstantial, and that is why it matters mainly when combined with the other clues.
Clue Four: The Domain Redirect
Clue number four is the easiest to verify, because it happens in your browser. As of September 2026, visiting shortmax.com triggers a permanent 301 redirect to shorttv.live. At the destination site you can browse online the same dramas the app streams. No part of a permanent redirect is an accident of search results; it is a deliberate server setting. Businesses normally point a domain only at property they control, so the redirect links both names to one operator. Nobody has written it down in a press release, but this is nonetheless the closest thing in this file to a signed statement.
The Fifth Clue: The Copyright Notice
The evidence ends with a footer. A ShortMax page on the shorttv.live site carries the line “© 2024 SHORTTV LIMITED”. Copyright lines tend to name the entity that actually owns the content and the site. Taken together with the package name, the seller, the launch month and the redirect, the pattern is hard to read any other way. That rename should still be treated by careful readers as likely but unconfirmed. No one could find an official announcement of a switch from ShortTV to ShortMax, and the company may describe its brands differently in the future.
Who Is Behind It: Jiuzhou Culture
Jiuzhou Culture, a Chinese short-drama producer, is the company behind the ShortTV name. A January 2024 report in China Daily stated that 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. Of those, about 80% were dubbed adaptations of Chinese productions, while the remaining 20% were original overseas shoots. As the company put it, the cost of a 70-episode short series ran $100,000 to $150,000. This blend 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, since they date from early 2024. Over 50,000 dramas in 19 languages are now claimed in ShortMax’s own listing, 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 Trouble With Look-Alike Apps
Here the case gets messier, because the short tv name is not protected in app store search. Several unrelated developers publish apps with nearly identical titles, and none of them is connected to Jiuzhou or ShortMax. The differences show up only in the developer field, which most people never read. It is easy for anyone looking for a shorts app from the ShortTV team to install one of these instead. Developer names as recorded in the store listings appear in the table as of September 2026. Don’t treat the icon or title as the real ID; the developer name is the real ID.
| Store app name | Developer or seller name | Available on | Installs recorded | Link to Jiuzhou’s ShortTV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ShortMax (package live.shorttv.apps) | SHORTTV LIMITED, Hong Kong | Android and iOS | 100M+ via Google Play | Likely the same app; the rename is unconfirmed |
| ShortTV: Watch Drama Shorts | HUNG LAM INVESTMENT AND CONSTRUCTION JSC | Android | 1M+ | Unrelated |
| Short TV – Drama & Shorts | BullFX | Android | Not shown | No connection |
| Shortv | Instant Shadow Limited | iOS | Not recorded | Not related |
What You Will Pay
Given that ShortTV and ShortMax appear to be one product, prices follow the ShortMax listing. 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. It was not possible to verify monthly or yearly plans, since the US store lists only weekly passes. Per the terms, passes renew automatically 24 hours before they expire, and refunds are refused unless the service is unusable because of ShortMax. Another complaint from App Store reviewers involves episodes costing up to 60 coins without clear pricing up front. The “free trial” wording confused some users, as the developer’s own replies on Google Play admit. 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 Brief Checklist
Most mix-ups can be prevented by a handful of checks that take less than a minute. You want to confirm that you are getting the Jiuzhou-linked app and not a look-alike. The pricing traps also become easier to spot before you start a short series you cannot afford to finish. Because they are unofficial and risky, avoid any site offering modded versions or “unlimited coins”. Only the store page itself is needed; none of these steps requires special tools. Before you tap install, work through the list below.
- Verify the developer or seller shows SHORTTV LIMITED or SHORTMAX LIMITED.
- Verify that the install count on Google Play sits at 100M+.
- Open the in-app purchase list to see current weekly pass prices in your country.
- Keep in mind that passes keep renewing automatically until you cancel in your store settings.
- However similar the title, skip any app whose developer name matches none of the above.
