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The Mystery: One Suspect, Two Names

When you type « short tv » into an app store, you are met with a crowd of lookalikes, a Chinese studio’s press history and, somewhere in the middle, a hit app named ShortMax. The case this file sets out to untangle is that very knot. The working hypothesis is simple: the app now sold as ShortMax and the ShortTV brand that a Chinese producer announced for the US, Canada and Australia are one and the same. Strong as the theory is, it chinese short dramas is not proven, since no official rename announcement has turned up. So instead of taking anyone’s word for it, we will walk through the public records one clue at a time. The force comes from how neatly the clues line up, as each clue is small on its own. By the end, you should be able to judge the claim on your own and, more practically, steer clear of installing the wrong short tv drama app.

First Clue: The Android Package Name

Each Android app has a package name: a fixed internal ID that rarely changes even if the store title does. In Google Play, ShortMax’s listing runs under the package live.shorttv.apps. That’s an unusual 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 typically pick the package ID. A package name that spells out « shorttv » is therefore the kind of fingerprint that survives a rebrand. On its own, though, a package name only suggests a history; it does not document one. Anyone can confirm this clue in seconds, since the ID also appears in the web address of the Play listing.

Second Clue: The Entity on Record

The fine print of both app stores contains the second clue. The App Store lists SHORTTV LIMITED as ShortMax’s seller. The developer appears as SHORTMAX LIMITED on Google Play, but the legal entity behind it is again SHORTTV LIMITED, listing 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 common pattern in app publishing. It 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: The Month of Launch

Thread number three comes down to timing. According to Baidu’s encyclopedia entry, ShortTV went live in September 2023. Google Play gives September 3, 2023 and the App Store gives September 11, 2023 for ShortMax, which appeared in the same month. Were two unrelated brands with near-identical names debuting within the same few weeks, that would be a striking coincidence. The overlap is explained more simply by one product that launched once and later operated 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. A shared month is still circumstantial, which is why it matters mainly when combined with the other clues.

Clue Four: The Web Domain Redirect

Among the clues, the fourth is the easiest to verify, since it happens in your browser. As of September 2026, a permanent 301 redirect forwards visitors of shortmax.com to shorttv.live. The destination site offers web browsing of the same dramas the app streams. The redirect links both names to one operator, since companies usually point a domain only at property they control. Nothing about a permanent redirect is an accident of search results; it is 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 Notice

The final 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 displays the line « © 2024 SHORTTV LIMITED ». Once you add the package name, the seller, the launch month and the redirect, the pattern is hard to read any other way. Careful readers should still treat the rename as likely but unconfirmed. The company might describe its brands differently in the future, and an official announcement of a switch from ShortTV to ShortMax could not be found.

Who Runs It: Jiuzhou Culture

Behind the ShortTV name is Jiuzhou Culture, a Chinese short-drama producer. A January 2024 report in China Daily said that Jiuzhou launched two overseas apps: 99TV for Southeast Asia and ShortTV for the US, Canada and Australia. The same report said Jiuzhou had produced more than 600 mini-dramas for overseas markets. About 80% were dubbed adaptations of Chinese productions, and the remaining 20% were original overseas shoots. Each 70-episode short series costs, by the company’s figures, $100,000 to $150,000. Dubbed Chinese stories as well as locally shot originals appear in the catalog, and that mix explains it. Treat those figures as a snapshot rather than a current tally, since 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. This studio is linked to the ShortMax brand you see in stores today by the ownership trail that runs through SHORTTV LIMITED.

The Trouble With Look-Alike Apps

Since the short tv name is not protected in app store search, the case becomes messier at this point. Apps with nearly identical titles are published by several unrelated developers, and none of them is connected to Jiuzhou or ShortMax. Most people never read 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 table lists the developer names recorded in the store listings as of September 2026. Do not treat the icon or title as the real ID; treat the developer name as the real ID.

The Price of It

Because 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. Single purchases go from about $3.49 to $24.99, and prices differ by country, platform and promotion. We could not verify monthly or yearly plans, as the US store lists only weekly passes. The terms state passes renew automatically 24 hours before they expire, and refunds are refused unless the service is unusable because of ShortMax. Through its own replies on Google Play, the developer acknowledges that its « free trial » wording confused some users. Another complaint from App Store reviewers concerns episodes costing up to 60 coins without clear pricing up front. Deleting the app does not stop the billing; cancellation happens in the App Store or Google Play subscription settings.

Before You Install: A Short 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. Only the store page itself is needed; none of these steps requires special tools. Any site that offers modded versions or « unlimited coins » are best avoided, because those are unofficial and risky. This list is worth running through before you tap install.

1. Verify the developer or seller is listed as SHORTTV LIMITED or SHORTMAX LIMITED.
2. Verify that the Google Play install count is at 100M+.
3. To check current weekly pass prices in your country, check the in-app purchase list.
4. Remember that passes keep renewing automatically until you cancel in your store settings.
5. However similar the title, avoid any app whose developer name matches none of the above.