The Puzzle: One Suspect, Two Names
A search for “short tv” in an app store brings up a swarm of look-alike apps, a Chinese studio’s press history and, somewhere in between, a hit app named ShortMax. The puzzle this file attempts 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. Although the theory is strong, it is not reel shorts online proven, since no official rename announcement has surfaced. So rather than taking anyone’s word for it, we will go through the public records one clue at a time. Each of the clues is small on its own, and the weight comes from how neatly they fit together. You should be able to judge the claim yourself by the end and, more practically, avoid installing the wrong short tv drama app.
Clue One: The Package Name on Android
Every Android app has a package name, a fixed internal ID that seldom changes even when the storefront title does. On Google Play, ShortMax’s listing runs under the package live.shorttv.apps. For a brand called ShortMax, that is an odd choice, unless the app began under another name. Developers typically 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. Taken alone, however, a package name only suggests a history; it does not document one. The same ID also appears in the web address of the Play listing, so anyone can confirm this clue in seconds.
The Second Clue: The Legal Entity Behind It
In the fine print of both app stores sits the second clue. The App Store shows 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, 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 well-known pattern in app publishing. While it does not prove the brands are the same, it puts ShortTV’s name on the contract you accept when you pay for ShortMax.
The Third Clue: When It Launched
Timing is the third thread. Baidu’s encyclopedia entry dates ShortTV’s launch to September 2023. That same month, ShortMax appeared: Google Play lists September 3, 2023 and the App Store lists September 11, 2023. Nearly identical names on two unrelated brands debuting within the same few weeks would be a striking coincidence. The overlap is explained more simply by a single product that launched once and later operated under a new name. A few months after that launch, in January 2024, China Daily was still calling Jiuzhou’s English-market app ShortTV. Still, a shared month is circumstantial, so it matters mainly when combined with the other clues.
Fourth Clue: The Domain Redirect
Since it happens in your browser, the fourth clue is the easiest to verify. As of September 2026, a permanent 301 redirect takes visitors of shortmax.com to shorttv.live. The same dramas the app streams are available to browse on the destination site on the web. A permanent redirect like this is not an accident of search results but a deliberate server setting. Companies normally point a domain only at property they control, so the redirect connects both names to one operator. Even though nobody has written it down in a press release, this is the closest thing in this file to a signed statement.
Fifth Clue: The Copyright Line
The last piece of evidence is a footer. A ShortMax page on the shorttv.live site carries the line “© 2024 SHORTTV LIMITED”. As a rule, copyright notices name the entity that actually owns the content and the site. The pattern is hard to read any other way when this is combined 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 Runs It: Jiuzhou Culture
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 produced by Jiuzhou, according to the same report. About 80% of those 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. Both dubbed Chinese stories and locally shot originals sit in the catalog, and that mix explains it. Coming from early 2024, those numbers should be treated as a snapshot rather than a current tally. ShortMax’s own store listing now claims more than 50,000 dramas in 19 languages, a company figure that has not been independently audited. This studio is connected to the ShortMax brand you see in stores today by the ownership trail that runs through SHORTTV LIMITED.
The Look-Alike Apps Problem
Because the short tv name is not protected in app store search, the case becomes messier at this point. None of the several unrelated developers publishing apps with nearly identical titles is connected to Jiuzhou or ShortMax. The differences show up only in the developer field, which most people never read. A person looking for a shorts app from the ShortTV team can easily install one of these instead. The table below lists the developer names recorded in the store listings as of September 2026. Treat the developer name, not the icon or title, as the real ID.
| App name in the store | Developer or seller name | Platform | Installs recorded | Connection to Jiuzhou’s ShortTV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ShortMax (package live.shorttv.apps) | SHORTTV LIMITED, Hong Kong | iOS and Android | 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 | Unrelated |
What You Will Pay
Because ShortTV and ShortMax appear to be one product, pricing follows the ShortMax listing. As of September 2026, the Weekly Pass Pro in the US App Store is priced at about $19.99 per week, while a cheaper tier costs about $9.99. Monthly or annual plans could not be verified, since the US store lists only weekly passes. Prices vary by country, platform and promotion, and one-time purchases run from about $3.49 to $24.99. Passes are renewed automatically 24 hours before they expire, according to the terms, and refunds are refused unless the service is unusable because of ShortMax. The developer’s own replies on Google Play admit that its “free trial” wording confused some users. A further complaint from App Store reviewers concerns episodes costing up to 60 coins without clear pricing up front. Cancellation happens in the App Store or Google Play subscription settings, and deleting the app does not stop the billing.
Before Installing: A Quick Checklist
Most mix-ups can be prevented by a few checks that take less than a minute. Confirming you are getting the Jiuzhou-linked app and not a look-alike is the whole point. Before you start a short series you cannot afford to finish, it also helps you spot the pricing traps. Any site that offers modded versions or “unlimited coins” are best avoided, because those are unofficial and risky. 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.
- Confirm the developer or seller is listed as SHORTTV LIMITED or SHORTMAX LIMITED.
- Check the install count on Google Play reads 100M+.
- Read the in-app purchase list to see current weekly pass prices in your country.
- Keep in mind that passes renew automatically until you cancel in your store settings.
- Pass on any app whose developer name matches none of the above, however similar the title.
