The Puzzle: One Suspect, Two Names
If you enter “short tv” into an app store, you see a crowd of look-alike apps, a Chinese studio’s press history and, somewhere in the middle, a hit app going by the name ShortMax. This tangle is the case this case file sets out to untangle. The working hypothesis is simple: the ShortTV brand that a Chinese producer announced for the US, Canada and Australia and the app now Secret Baby reel shorts series sold as ShortMax are one and the same. The theory is a strong one, yet it is not proven, as no official rename announcement has turned up. So we will work through the public records one clue at a time instead of taking anyone’s word for it. The clues are each small on their own, and 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.
Clue One: The Package Name on Android
The package name is a fixed internal ID carried by every Android app, and it seldom changes even when the storefront title does. In Google Play, ShortMax’s listing relies on the package live.shorttv.apps. For a brand named ShortMax, that is an odd choice, unless the app began under another name. The package ID is usually set 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. The ID also shows up in the web address of the Play listing, so anyone can confirm this clue in seconds. The package name, by itself, does not document a history; it only suggests one.
The Second Clue: The Legal Entity
The next clue sits in the fine print of both app stores. On the App Store, ShortMax’s seller is SHORTTV LIMITED. The developer is shown as SHORTMAX LIMITED on Google Play, 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, as well, 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. While it does not prove the brands are the same, it places ShortTV’s name on the contract you accept when you pay for ShortMax.
Clue Three: The Launch Month
Timing is the third thread. ShortTV’s launch is dated to September 2023 in Baidu’s encyclopedia entry. Google Play gives September 3, 2023 and the App Store lists September 11, 2023 for ShortMax, which arrived in the same month. The overlap is more simply explained by a single product that launched once and later operated under a new name. It would be a remarkable coincidence for two unrelated brands with nearly identical names to debut within the same few weeks. Only a few months after that launch, in January 2024, China Daily was still referring to Jiuzhou’s English-market app as ShortTV. A shared month is still circumstantial, and that is why it matters mainly in combination with the other clues.
Fourth Clue: The Domain Redirect
Of all the clues, the fourth is the easiest to check, since it happens in your browser. As of September 2026, loading shortmax.com produces a permanent 301 redirect to shorttv.live. The destination site offers web browsing of the same dramas the app streams. A permanent redirect is not an accident of search results but a deliberate server setting. Businesses normally point a domain only at property they control, so the redirect ties both names to one operator. This is the closest thing in this file to a signed statement, even though nobody has written it down in a press release.
Fifth Clue: The Copyright Line
The final piece of evidence is a footer. The entity named in a copyright notice tends to be the one that actually owns the content and the site. A ShortMax page on the shorttv.live site carries the line “© 2024 SHORTTV LIMITED”. The pattern is hard to read any other way once this is taken together with the package name, the seller, the launch month and the redirect. Careful readers should still treat the rename as likely but unconfirmed. An official announcement of a switch from ShortTV to ShortMax could not be found, and the company may describe its brands differently in the future.
The Company Behind It: Jiuzhou Culture
Standing behind the ShortTV name is Jiuzhou Culture, a Chinese short-drama producer. A January 2024 report in China Daily stated that Jiuzhou had launched two overseas apps: 99TV for Southeast Asia and ShortTV for the US, Canada and Australia. Per that same report, Jiuzhou had made 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’s figures, the cost of a 70-episode short series came to $100,000 to $150,000. That mix is 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. Dating from early 2024, those numbers are best read as a snapshot rather than a current tally. The ownership trail running through SHORTTV LIMITED is what connects this studio to the ShortMax brand you see in stores today.
The Problem With Look-Alike Apps
The case gets messier here, because the short tv name is not protected in app store search. None of the several unrelated developers who publish 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. The differences between them show up only in the developer field, which most people never read. The table 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.
| App name in the store | Seller or developer | Platform | Install count | 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; rename 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 recorded | Unrelated |
The Price of It
Pricing follows the ShortMax listing, since ShortTV and ShortMax appear to be one product. On the US App Store as of September 2026, the Weekly Pass Pro costs about $19.99 a week, and a cheaper tier sits at about $9.99. Monthly or annual plans could not be verified, since the US store lists only weekly passes. Single 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, the terms say, and refunds are refused unless the service is unusable because of ShortMax. In its own replies on Google Play, the developer admits that its “free trial” wording confused some users. Episodes that cost up to 60 coins without clear pricing up front are also a complaint from App Store reviewers. Deleting the app does not stop the billing; cancelling happens in the App Store or Google Play subscription settings.
Before You Tap Install: A Brief Checklist
The majority of 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. Before you start a short series you cannot afford to finish, it also helps you spot the pricing traps. Only the store page itself is needed; none of these steps requires special tools. Because they are unofficial and risky, avoid any site offering modded versions or “unlimited coins”. Run through the list below before you tap install.
- Check that the developer or seller reads SHORTTV LIMITED or SHORTMAX LIMITED.
- Check the install count on Google Play reads 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.
- However similar the title, skip any app whose developer name matches none of the above.