The Puzzle: One Suspect, Two Names
Searching for “short tv” in an app store returns a swarm of look-alike apps, the press history of a Chinese studio and, somewhere in the middle, a hit app named ShortMax. Sorting out that tangle is the real-short.net case this file takes on. The working hypothesis is simple: the app now sold as ShortMax and the ShortTV brand announced by a Chinese producer for the US, Canada and Australia are one and the same. The theory is a strong one, but it is not proven, since no official rename announcement has surfaced. 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. 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 Android Package Name
A package name is a fixed internal ID that every Android app carries, and it rarely changes even when the storefront title does. The package live.shorttv.apps is what ShortMax’s Google Play listing uses. That’s an odd choice for a brand called ShortMax, unless the app started life under another name. Right at the start, before marketing settles on a final title, developers usually choose the package ID. The kind of fingerprint that survives a rebrand is therefore a package name that spells out “shorttv”. On its own, though, a package name only suggests a history; it does not document one. Since the ID also shows up in the web address of the Play listing, this clue can be confirmed by anyone in seconds.
Second Clue: The Legal Entity Behind It
In the fine print of both app stores lies the second clue. The App Store names SHORTTV LIMITED as ShortMax’s seller. Although Google Play lists the developer as SHORTMAX LIMITED, the legal entity behind it is once 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. Renaming a 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.
The Third Clue: The Month of Launch
The third thread concerns timing. ShortTV’s launch is dated to September 2023 in Baidu’s encyclopedia entry. In the same month, ShortMax appeared: Google Play lists September 3, 2023 and the App Store lists September 11, 2023. The simpler explanation of the overlap is one product that launched once and later traded under a new name. A pair of unrelated brands with near-identical names debuting within the same few weeks would be a notable coincidence. China Daily was still referring to Jiuzhou’s English-market app as ShortTV in January 2024, a few months after that launch. Even so, a shared month is circumstantial, so it matters mainly alongside the other clues.
Fourth Clue: The Redirect Between Domains
Clue number four is the easiest to verify, because it happens in your browser. 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 in a web browser. Businesses normally point a domain only at property they control, so the redirect ties both names to one operator. A permanent redirect is a deliberate server setting, not an accident of search results. Although nobody has written it down in a press release, it is the closest thing in this file to a signed statement.
The Fifth Clue: The Copyright Line
The trail ends with a footer. As a rule, copyright notices tend to name the entity that actually owns the content and the site. The line “© 2024 SHORTTV LIMITED” shows up on a ShortMax page on the shorttv.live site. Taken together with the package name, the seller, the launch month and the redirect, the pattern is hard to read any other way. Cautious readers should still treat the rename as likely but unconfirmed. No one could find an official announcement of a switch from ShortTV to ShortMax, and the company may describe its brands differently in the future.
Who Runs It: Jiuzhou Culture
Standing behind the ShortTV name is Jiuzhou Culture, a Chinese short-drama producer. A January 2024 report in China Daily said that Jiuzhou had 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. By the company’s estimate, a 70-episode short series cost $100,000 to $150,000. This mix explains why the catalog contains both dubbed Chinese stories and locally shot originals. More than 50,000 dramas in 19 languages is what ShortMax’s own listing now claims, a company figure that has not been independently audited. Read those figures as a snapshot rather than a current tally, since they date from early 2024. What links this studio to the ShortMax brand you see in stores today is the ownership trail through SHORTTV LIMITED.
The Problem With Look-Alike Apps
Because the short tv name is not protected in app store search, the case becomes messier here. None of the unrelated developers publishing apps with nearly identical titles is connected to Jiuzhou or ShortMax. It is easy for someone looking for a shorts app from the ShortTV team to install one of these instead. Most people never look at the developer field, which is the only place the differences show up. The table below lists the developer names recorded in the store listings as of September 2026. The real ID is the developer name, not the icon or title.
| Store app name | Developer or seller name | Platform | Installs recorded | Connection to Jiuzhou’s ShortTV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ShortMax (package live.shorttv.apps) | SHORTTV LIMITED, Hong Kong | Android and iOS | 100M+ on Google Play | Likely the same app; the rename is unconfirmed |
| ShortTV: Watch Drama Shorts | HUNG LAM INVESTMENT AND CONSTRUCTION JSC | Android | 1M+ | Not related |
| Short TV – Drama & Shorts | BullFX | Android | Not listed | Not related |
| Shortv | Instant Shadow Limited | iOS | Not listed | No connection |
What You Will Pay
With ShortTV and ShortMax appearing to be one product, pricing follows the ShortMax listing. In the US App Store as of September 2026, the Weekly Pass Pro costs about $19.99 a week, and a cheaper tier comes in at about $9.99. We could not verify monthly or yearly plans, as the US store shows only weekly passes. Prices vary by country, platform and promotion, and one-time purchases run from about $3.49 to $24.99. According to the terms, passes are renewed automatically 24 hours before they expire, and refunds are denied unless the service is unusable because of ShortMax. Episodes costing up to 60 coins without clear pricing up front are another complaint from App Store reviewers. Through its own replies on Google Play, the developer admits that its “free trial” wording confused some users. Cancelling happens in the App Store or Google Play subscription settings, and deleting the app does not stop the billing.
Before You Tap Install: A Short Checklist
Most mix-ups are prevented by a few 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. No special tools are needed for any of these steps, only the store page itself. Stay away from any site offering modded versions or “unlimited coins”, because those are unofficial and risky. Run through the list below before you tap install.
- Confirm the developer or seller shows SHORTTV LIMITED or SHORTMAX LIMITED.
- Check the install count on Google Play sits at 100M+.
- To see current weekly pass prices in your country, read the in-app purchase list.
- Keep in mind that passes renew automatically until you cancel in your store settings.
- Avoid any app whose developer name matches none of the above, however similar the title.