The Puzzle: One Suspect, Two Names
If you enter “short tv” into an app store, you are met with a crowd of lookalikes, the press history of a Chinese studio and, somewhere in the middle, a hit app called ShortMax. Untangling that tangle is the whole Dragon Tamer online case this file takes on. In simple terms, the working theory says that the ShortTV brand announced by a Chinese producer for the US, Canada and Australia and the app sold today as ShortMax are one and the same. No official rename announcement has surfaced, so the theory, though strong, is not proven. That is why we will work through the public records one clue at a time instead of taking anyone’s word for it. Each piece of evidence is small on its own, and the weight comes from how neatly they line up. By the end of this file you should be able to judge the claim yourself and, more usefully, avoid installing the wrong short tv drama app.
The First Clue: The Android Package ID
A package name, the fixed internal ID, comes with every Android app, and it seldom changes even when the storefront title does. The package live.shorttv.apps is what ShortMax’s Google Play listing uses. Unless the app started life under another name, this is an odd choice for a brand called ShortMax. A package ID is usually set at the very beginning, before marketing settles on a final title. A package name that spells out “shorttv” is therefore the kind of fingerprint that survives a rebrand. Since the ID also shows up in the web address of the Play listing, this clue can be confirmed by anyone in seconds. On its own, though, a package name only suggests a history; it does not document one.
Clue Two: The Entity on Record
The fine print of both app stores contains the second clue. The App Store shows SHORTTV LIMITED as ShortMax’s seller. Over on Google Play the developer is shown as SHORTMAX LIMITED, while the legal entity behind it is again SHORTTV LIMITED, with an address in the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong. The company’s terms of service, too, are governed by Hong Kong law. In app publishing, it is a common pattern for a studio to rename its consumer product while keeping the original company name. Although it does not prove the brands are the same, it puts ShortTV’s name on the contract you accept when you pay for ShortMax.
Third Clue: The Launch Month
The third thread comes down to timing. According to Baidu’s encyclopedia entry, ShortTV went live in September 2023. ShortMax appeared that very month, with Google Play listing September 3, 2023 and the App Store giving September 11, 2023. A single product that launched once and later traded under a new name explains the overlap more simply. Two unrelated brands with near-identical names debuting within the same few weeks would be a remarkable coincidence. A few months after that launch, in January 2024, China Daily was still referring to Jiuzhou’s English-market app as ShortTV. Even so, a shared month is circumstantial, so it matters mainly when combined with the other clues.
Clue Four: The Domain Redirect
The fourth clue is the easiest to check, because it happens in your browser. As of September 2026, anyone who opens shortmax.com is sent to shorttv.live through a permanent 301 redirect. Web browsing of the same dramas the app streams is available on that destination site. Since companies normally point a domain only at property they control, the redirect ties both names to one operator. A permanent redirect like this is not an accident of search results but a deliberate server setting. This is the closest thing in this file to a signed statement, even though nobody has written it down in a press release.
Clue Five: The Copyright Line
The final piece of evidence is a footer. On the shorttv.live site, a ShortMax page shows 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. Careful readers should nevertheless 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.
The Company Behind It: Jiuzhou Culture
The company that stands behind the ShortTV name is Jiuzhou Culture, a Chinese short-drama producer. Jiuzhou launched two overseas apps, per a January 2024 report in China Daily: 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. Of these titles, about 80% were dubbed adaptations of Chinese productions, while the remaining 20% were original overseas shoots. According to the company’s figures, the cost of a 70-episode short series ran $100,000 to $150,000. This mix explains why the catalog holds both dubbed Chinese stories and locally shot originals. Dating from early 2024, those numbers should be treated as a snapshot rather than a current tally. Today, ShortMax’s own listing claims more than 50,000 dramas in 19 languages, but that company figure 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 Look-Alike Apps Problem
Since the short tv name is not protected in app store search, the case gets messier here. None of the apps with nearly identical titles from several unrelated developers is connected to Jiuzhou or ShortMax. Only the developer field, which most people never read, shows the differences. It is easy for someone looking for a shorts app from the ShortTV team to install one of these instead. Developer names as recorded in the store listings are listed in the table as of September 2026. The real ID is the developer name, not the icon or title.
| App name in the store | Developer or seller | Available on | Install count | 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; rename not confirmed |
| ShortTV: Watch Drama Shorts | HUNG LAM INVESTMENT AND CONSTRUCTION JSC | Android | 1M+ | Not related |
| Short TV – Drama & Shorts | BullFX | Android | Not recorded | Not related |
| Shortv | Instant Shadow Limited | iOS | Not shown | Not related |
How Much It Costs
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 sits at about $9.99. It was not possible to verify monthly or yearly plans, as the US store lists only weekly passes. Prices vary by country, platform and promotion, and one-time purchases range from about $3.49 to $24.99. Passes are renewed automatically 24 hours before they expire, the terms say, and refunds are denied 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. App Store reviewers also complain about episodes costing up to 60 coins without clear pricing up front. Deleting the app does not stop the billing; cancelling takes place in the App Store or Google Play subscription settings.
Before You Tap Install: A Brief Checklist
Most mix-ups can be prevented by a few checks that take less than a minute. The point is to confirm you are getting the Jiuzhou-linked app and not a look-alike. Pricing traps also become easier to spot before you start a short series you cannot afford to finish. Just 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, since those are unofficial and risky. This list is worth running through before you tap install.
- Verify the developer or seller shows SHORTTV LIMITED or SHORTMAX LIMITED.
- Check the install count on Google Play sits at 100M+.
- Read 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.
- No matter how similar the title looks, skip any app whose developer name matches none of the above.