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The Puzzle: Two Names, a Single Suspect

If you type „short tv“ into an app store, you get a crowd of look-alike apps, the press history of a Chinese studio and, somewhere in the middle, a hit app named ShortMax. This tangle is the case this case file sets out to untangle. Put simply, the working hypothesis is that the ShortTV brand a Chinese producer announced for the US, Canada and Australia and the app currently sold as ShortMax are one and the same. No official rename announcement has turned up, so the theory, while strong, is not proven. Rather than taking anyone’s word for it, we will go through the public records one clue at a drama clips app time. The force comes from how neatly the clues line up, as each one is small on its own. When you reach the end, you should be able to judge the claim on your own and, even more usefully, steer clear of installing the wrong short tv drama app.

First Clue: The Package Name on Android

A package name is a fixed internal ID carried by every Android app, and it rarely changes even when the storefront title does. The package live.shorttv.apps is the one ShortMax uses on Google Play. That is an odd choice for a brand called ShortMax, unless the app started life under another name. A package ID is usually chosen at the very beginning, before marketing settles on a final title. For that reason, a package that spells out „shorttv“ is precisely the kind of fingerprint that survives a rebrand. The same ID also appears in the web address of the Play listing, so anyone can confirm this clue in seconds. The package name, on its own, does not document a history; it only suggests one.

The Second Clue: The Legal Entity

Buried in the fine print of both app stores lies the second clue. The App Store names SHORTTV LIMITED as ShortMax’s seller. Over on Google Play the developer is listed 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 are also governed by Hong Kong law. A studio renaming its consumer product while keeping the original company name is a well-known 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.

Third Clue: When It Launched

Thread number three is about timing. Per Baidu’s encyclopedia entry, ShortTV launched in September 2023. The same month saw ShortMax appear, as Google Play giving September 3, 2023 and the App Store listing September 11, 2023. One product that launched once and later traded under a new name explains the overlap more simply. If two unrelated brands with near-identical names to debut within the same few weeks, that would be a striking coincidence. In January 2024, a few months after that launch, China Daily was still referring to Jiuzhou’s English-market app as ShortTV. Still, a shared month is circumstantial, so it matters mainly alongside the other clues.

Clue Four: The Redirect Between Domains

Because it happens in your browser, the fourth clue is the easiest to check. As of September 2026, anyone who opens shortmax.com is sent to shorttv.live by a permanent 301 redirect. The same dramas the app streams are available to browse on that destination site on the web. Nothing about a permanent redirect is an accident of search results; it is a deliberate server setting. Since companies normally point a domain only at property they control, the redirect ties both names to one operator. It 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 Footer

The final piece of evidence is a footer. Copyright lines tend to name the entity that actually owns the content and the site. On the shorttv.live site, a ShortMax page displays the line „© 2024 SHORTTV LIMITED“. 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 no official announcement of a switch from ShortTV to ShortMax could be found.

Who Runs It: Jiuzhou Culture

Standing 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. According to the same report, Jiuzhou had made more than 600 mini-dramas for overseas markets. Of these titles, about 80% were dubbed adaptations of Chinese productions, whereas the remaining 20% were original overseas shoots. According to the company’s figures, the cost of a 70-episode short series came to $100,000 to $150,000. Both dubbed Chinese stories and locally shot originals appear in the catalog, which that mix explains. These numbers date from early 2024, so treat them as a snapshot rather than a current tally. ShortMax’s own listing now claims more than 50,000 dramas in 19 languages, 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

The case gets messier here, as 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. Anyone looking for a shorts app from the ShortTV team can easily install one of these instead. The developer field is the only place the differences show up, and most people never read it. Below, you will find the developer names recorded in the store listings as of September 2026. Use the developer name, not the icon or title, as the real ID.

What It Costs

Pricing follows the ShortMax listing, because ShortTV and ShortMax appear to be one product. As of September 2026, the Weekly Pass Pro in the US App Store is priced at about $19.99 a week, while a cheaper tier costs about $9.99. We could not verify monthly or yearly plans, since the US store shows only weekly passes. One-time purchases range from about $3.49 to $24.99, and prices vary by country, platform and promotion. Passes renew automatically 24 hours before they expire, according to the terms, and refunds are denied 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. The „free trial“ wording confused some users, as the developer’s own replies on Google Play admit. Cancelling is done in the App Store or Google Play subscription settings, because deleting the app does not stop the billing.

Before You Tap Install: A Short Checklist

In less than a minute, a few checks prevent most mix-ups. The goal is to confirm you are getting the Jiuzhou-linked app and not a look-alike. It also helps you spot the pricing traps before you start a short series you cannot afford to finish. None of these steps needs special tools, only the store page itself. Because they are unofficial and risky, stay away from any site offering modded versions or „unlimited coins“. The list below is worth going through before you tap install.

1. Verify the developer or seller shows SHORTTV LIMITED or SHORTMAX LIMITED.
2. Confirm that the install count on Google Play sits at 100M+.
3. Check the in-app purchase list to see current weekly pass prices in your country.
4. Keep in mind that passes renew automatically until you cancel in your store settings.
5. Pass on any app whose developer name matches none of the above, however similar the title.