The Puzzle: One Suspect, Two Names
If you type “short tv” into an app store, you are met with a crowd of look-alike apps, the press history of a Chinese studio and, somewhere in the middle, a hit app going by the name ShortMax. The case this file attempts to untangle is exactly that tangle. In simple terms, the working hypothesis holds that the ShortTV brand announced by a Chinese producer for the US, Canada and Australia and the app sold today as ShortMax are watch Unsubscribed From Your Love one and the same. That theory is strong, but it is not proven, because no official rename announcement has surfaced. So instead of taking anyone’s word for it, we will work through the public records one clue at a time. Taken alone, each clue is small; the weight comes from how neatly they fit together. More usefully, by the end you should be able to steer clear of installing the wrong short tv drama app, as well as judge the claim yourself.
The First Clue: The Android Package Name
A package name is a fixed internal ID that every Android app carries, and it seldom changes even when the storefront title does. The Google Play listing for ShortMax uses the package live.shorttv.apps. Unless the app began under another name, that is an odd choice for a brand called ShortMax. Right at the start, before marketing settles on a final title, developers typically choose the package ID. For that reason, a package spelling out “shorttv” is precisely the kind of fingerprint that survives a rebrand. Since the ID also shows up in the web address of the Play listing, anyone can confirm this clue in seconds. However, a package name by itself only suggests a history but does not document one.
The Second Clue: The Entity on Record
The next clue is hidden in the fine print of both app stores. ShortMax’s seller on the App Store is SHORTTV LIMITED. 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 the company’s terms of service. Studios often rename their consumer product while keeping the original company name, a common pattern in app publishing. This does not prove the brands are the same, but it puts ShortTV’s name on the contract you accept when you pay for ShortMax.
Clue Three: The Launch Month
The third thread concerns timing. Per Baidu’s encyclopedia entry, ShortTV launched in September 2023. ShortMax arrived in the same month, with Google Play listing September 3, 2023 and the App Store listing September 11, 2023. The overlap is explained more simply by one product that launched once and later traded under a new name. It would be a remarkable coincidence for two unrelated brands with near-identical names to debut within the same few weeks. 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 in combination with the other clues.
The Fourth Clue: The Web Domain Redirect
The fourth clue 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. That target site offers web browsing of the same dramas the app streams. The redirect ties both names to one operator, because companies normally point a domain only at property they control. A permanent redirect like this is a deliberate server setting, not an accident of search results. It 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 Line
The trail ends with a footer. Copyright notices tend to name the entity that actually owns the content and the site. On the shorttv.live site, a ShortMax page carries 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. Cautious readers should nevertheless treat the rename as likely but unconfirmed. No official announcement of a switch from ShortTV to ShortMax could be found, and the company may describe its brands differently in the future.
Who Runs It: Jiuzhou Culture
Behind the ShortTV name is Jiuzhou Culture, a Chinese short-drama producer. 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. According to the same report, 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 shoots made overseas. According to the company, a 70-episode short series cost $100,000 to $150,000. That mix is the reason the catalog carries both dubbed Chinese stories and locally shot originals. Coming from early 2024, those numbers should be treated as a snapshot rather than a current tally. More than 50,000 dramas in 19 languages are now claimed in ShortMax’s own listing, a company figure that has not been independently audited. It is the ownership trail through SHORTTV LIMITED that this studio connects 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. Any one of these can easily get installed instead by someone looking for a shorts app from the ShortTV team. Most people never look at the developer field, which is the only place the differences show up. In the table, you will find the developer names recorded in the store listings as of September 2026. Regard the developer name, not the icon or title, as the real ID.
| App name in the store | Developer or seller | Platform | Installs | Link to Jiuzhou’s ShortTV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ShortMax (package live.shorttv.apps) | SHORTTV LIMITED, Hong Kong | Both iOS and Android | 100M+ via Google Play | Likely the same app; rename unconfirmed |
| ShortTV: Watch Drama Shorts | HUNG LAM INVESTMENT AND CONSTRUCTION JSC | Android | 1M+ | Not related |
| Short TV – Drama & Shorts | BullFX | Android | Not shown | Not related |
| Shortv | Instant Shadow Limited | iOS | Not shown | Unrelated |
What You Will Pay
As 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. Because the US store lists only weekly passes, monthly or yearly plans could not be verified. Single purchases range from about $3.49 to $24.99, and prices vary by country, platform and promotion. The terms say passes renew automatically 24 hours before they expire, and refunds are refused unless the service is unusable because of ShortMax. A further complaint from App Store reviewers involves episodes costing up to 60 coins without clear pricing up front. In its own replies on Google Play, the developer acknowledges that its “free trial” wording confused some users. The App Store or Google Play subscription settings are where cancelling happens, and deleting the app does not stop the billing.
Before You Install: A Brief Checklist
The majority of mix-ups are prevented by a few checks taking less than a minute. The idea is to confirm that you are getting the Jiuzhou-linked app and not a look-alike. It also lets you spot the pricing traps before you start a short series you cannot afford to finish. None of these steps requires special tools, only the store page itself. Steer clear of any site offering modded versions or “unlimited coins”, because those are unofficial and risky. The list below is worth going through before you tap install.
- Make sure that the developer or seller reads SHORTTV LIMITED or SHORTMAX LIMITED.
- Confirm that the Google Play install count shows 100M+.
- To check current weekly pass prices in your country, read the in-app purchase list.
- Keep in mind that passes keep renewing automatically until you cancel in your store settings.
- However similar the title, avoid any app whose developer name matches none of the above.