The Mystery: Two Names, One Suspect
Search « short tv » in an app store and you get a crowd of lookalikes, the press history of a Chinese studio and, somewhere in the middle, a hit app named ShortMax. Untangling that tangle is the case this file sets out to crack. The working theory 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. That theory is strong, but it is not proven, because no official rename announcement has surfaced. So we will go through the public Governor Your First Lady Is A Mafia Heiress records one clue at a time instead of taking anyone’s word for it. On its own, each clue is small; the weight comes from how neatly they line up. Even 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.
First Clue: The Android Package Name
The package name is a fixed internal ID carried by every Android app, and it rarely changes even when the storefront title does. On Google Play, ShortMax’s listing uses the package live.shorttv.apps. For a brand called ShortMax, this is an odd choice, unless the app began under another name. Developers usually pick the package ID at the very beginning, before marketing settles on a final title. So a package spelling out « shorttv » is precisely the kind of fingerprint that survives a rebrand. Still, a package name by itself only suggests a history but does not document one. The ID also appears in the web address of the Play listing, so anyone can confirm this clue in seconds.
The Second Clue: The Legal Entity
Clue number two lies in the fine print of both app stores. The App Store names SHORTTV LIMITED as ShortMax’s seller. Google Play lists the developer as SHORTMAX LIMITED, yet 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 of service, as well, are governed by Hong Kong law. Renaming a consumer product while keeping the original company name is a familiar pattern in app publishing. Even if 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 Month of Launch
Timing is the third thread. ShortTV’s launch is dated to September 2023 in Baidu’s encyclopedia entry. ShortMax showed up in the same month, with Google Play listing September 3, 2023 and the App Store listing September 11, 2023. The overlap is more simply explained by a single product that launched once and later traded under a new name. Were two unrelated brands with nearly identical names debuting within the same few weeks, that would be a striking 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 when combined with the other clues.
Fourth Clue: The Web Domain Redirect
Because it happens in your browser, the fourth clue is the easiest to verify. As of September 2026, opening shortmax.com triggers a permanent 301 redirect to shorttv.live. The same dramas the app streams are available to browse on the destination site on the web. Since companies normally point a domain only at property they control, the redirect connects both names to one operator. A permanent redirect 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 Footer
The final clue is a footer. A ShortMax page on the shorttv.live site carries the line « © 2024 SHORTTV LIMITED ». Copyright notices tend to name the entity that actually owns the content and the site. Combined with the package name, the seller, the launch month and the redirect, the pattern is hard to read any other way. Careful readers should nevertheless 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
The company that stands behind the ShortTV name is Jiuzhou Culture, a Chinese short-drama producer. Jiuzhou launched two overseas apps, according to 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 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. The company placed the cost of a 70-episode short series at $100,000 to $150,000. Both dubbed Chinese stories and locally shot originals appear in the catalog, and that mix explains it. ShortMax’s own listing now claims more than 50,000 dramas in 19 languages, 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. This studio is connected to the ShortMax brand you see in stores today through the ownership trail that runs through SHORTTV LIMITED.
The Trouble With Look-Alike Apps
At this point the case gets messier, because the short tv name is not protected in app store search. A number of unrelated developers publish apps with nearly identical titles, and none of them is connected to Jiuzhou or ShortMax. Most people never read the developer field, which is the only place the differences show up. It is easy for anyone looking for a shorts app from the ShortTV team to install one of these instead. The table lists 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.
| 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+ in 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 listed | Not related |
The Price of It
Given that ShortTV and ShortMax appear to be one product, pricing follows the ShortMax listing. On the US App Store as of September 2026, the Weekly Pass Pro costs about $19.99 per week, and a cheaper tier sits at about $9.99. Prices vary by country, platform and promotion, and one-time purchases range from about $3.49 to $24.99. Because the US store lists only weekly passes, monthly or annual plans could not be confirmed. 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. The developer’s own replies on Google Play admit that its « free trial » wording confused some users. Deleting the app does not stop the billing; cancellation happens in the App Store or Google Play subscription settings.
Before Installing: A Brief Checklist
In less than a minute, a few checks head off most mix-ups. The idea is to confirm that 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. Only the store page itself is needed; none of these steps requires special tools. Any site that offers modded versions or « unlimited coins » should be avoided, because those are unofficial and risky. Run through the list below before you tap install.
- Verify the developer or seller is listed as SHORTTV LIMITED or SHORTMAX LIMITED.
- Check the install count on Google Play sits at 100M+.
- To see current weekly pass prices in your country, check the in-app purchase list.
- Note that passes renew automatically until you cancel in your store settings.
- However similar the title, avoid any app whose developer name matches none of the above.