The Vertical Drama Bet of a Kyiv Studio
The company called Holywater did not start its life as a television business. In 2020 Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov set up the studio in Kyiv, Ukraine, and its portfolio to this day reads more like a mobile entertainment laboratory than a streaming platform. My Drama sits in a portfolio with My Passion for books, My Muse for AI and FreeBits. That breadth matters: it reveals a business for which video is one of several consumer products, not its whole identity. In the end, the company bet on the vertical www.reelsshorts.org drama, a format that began in China as duanju and is framed 9:16 for an upright phone. The groups behind the sector’s biggest names were Chinese and Singaporean, which made this a daring market for a small Ukrainian firm to enter.
Spring 2024: The My Drama App Hits the Stores
The My Drama app appeared in spring 2024, though the precise date depends on which source you believe. The launch date varies by source: TechCrunch placed it in April, Google Play lists March 13, 2024, and the App Store lists May 9, 2024. The difference between those store dates suggests that Android came first and the iPhone version arrived about two months later. The genre’s most popular tropes dominated the first slate. Most of what you need to know about the style comes through in initial titles such as The Shy Beauty and the Billionaire Beast and Love Captive to a Mafia Boss. What ultimately made the company stand out was not the stories themselves but the partner it would soon be producing them with.
Fox, $22M in Fresh Funding and a Webby Win
My Drama stopped being a startup curiosity in October 2025. Fox Entertainment took an equity stake in Holywater, and the deal came with a pledge to make more than 200 vertical titles over two years. Fox-produced titles on the service include Billionaire Blackmail, Bound by Obsession and My Heart’s Offside. Horizon Capital headed a $22M funding round for Holywater three months later, in January 2026. A Webby Award for Best Streaming Service from 2025 is also held by the company, which displays it on its App Store listing. Few rivals can claim what those milestones give My Drama, namely a big American studio acting as both shareholder and producer.
My Drama: Key Facts
The quick version of the story is in the table below, for anyone who only has a minute. It pulls together the ownership, legal, platform and pricing details that count most to a new viewer. As of September 2026, the prices are those shown in the US App Store. Since they differ by country, platform and promotion, treat them as a rough guide rather than a quote. On Google Play, where the install figure comes from, the app shows 5M+ downloads. If you ever need to challenge a charge, it matters that the legal entity you deal with depends on where you live.
| Category | Specifics |
|---|---|
| Parent company | Holywater (founded in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2020) |
| Co-founders | Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov |
| Sister apps | My Passion for books, My Muse for AI, plus FreeBits |
| Contracting entity, US users | XOLY LIMITED (Delaware) |
| Contract party, other users | Holy Water Limited (Nicosia, Cyprus) |
| Release | Spring 2024 (Google Play on March 13; App Store on May 9) |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple TV (tvOS 18+), Vision Pro, Android, web |
| Android downloads | 5M+ on Google Play |
| Full-access plan | Roughly $19.99 a week, with automatic renewal |
| Coin packages | Around $4.99 to $24.99 |
| Premium options | About $4.99 to $9.99 |
| Production partner | Fox Entertainment, equity stake held since October 2025, 200+ titles over two years |
| Latest funding | $22M in January 2026, led by Horizon Capital |
| Awards | 2025 Webby Award, Best Streaming Service |
What Watching on My Drama Feels Like
The entire category is built on the same basic experience, and My Drama sticks to it. Episodes are vertical and formatted for an upright phone; in this genre they usually last one or two minutes, and then a cliffhanger pushes you toward the next one. Series often run anywhere from 20 to 100 episodes, so a single story can silently consume an evening in bite-sized pieces. Where this drama app really distinguishes itself is the range of screens it supports. Besides iPhone, iPad and Android, listings show it for Vision Pro and for Apple TV on tvOS 18 or later. By comparison, ReelShort’s App Store listing shows no Apple TV version at all, so this big-screen option is less common than you might think. A 9:16 frame will never fill a widescreen TV, but the option transforms a solo phone habit into something a couple can enjoy together.
Holywater’s own early productions and the growing Fox slate make up the catalog, which blends the two. Titles like Billionaire Blackmail and Bound by Obsession make it clear that the Fox releases stay close to the genre’s established formula. Here, the honest caveat is scale. With 5M+ installs on Google Play, the app has a small fraction of the 100M+ that ReelShort, DramaBox and ShortMax each list. That gap reveals where My Drama sits in 2026: a well-backed challenger rather than the category leader.
What My Drama Costs in 2026: Pricing
Holywater sells access three ways, and the main figure is the weekly pass. Around $19.99 per week is what “My Drama: Full Access” runs in the US App Store as of September 2026. That puts it in line with the weekly passes from ReelShort, ShortMax, DramaWave and GoodShort, each listed at about the same price in the same store. Coin packs, which are used to unlock individual episodes, range from about $4.99 to $24.99. Lighter viewers have cheaper entry points than the full pass, since a separate Premium tier is listed at roughly $4.99 to $9.99. Until you cancel it, the weekly subscription auto-renews, as its rivals’ plans do. The figure on your own device may be different, as prices vary by country, platform and promotion. Run the numbers first: at four renewals, a $19.99 weekly pass adds up to around $80 a month.
Terms to Know Before You Pay
Most viewers pay less attention than they should to the fine print in My Drama’s terms of use. Every coin purchase is final, which means no easy refund if a series lets you down after you unlock it. After 12 months of inactivity, coins are also forfeited, so a balance left untouched for a year can simply vanish. Purchases on the web are described as non-refundable except where the law requires otherwise. A 14-day right of withdrawal covers viewers in the EU and UK, in line with the consumer rules in those markets. The crucial point of all: the terms state plainly that deleting the app does not cancel your subscription. iPhone owners cancel under Settings, then their name, then Subscriptions, while Android users go through the Subscriptions menu in Google Play. Apple or Google, not Holywater, process refunds for store purchases.
It also helps to know exactly who sits on the other side of the contract. If you are in the US, the counterparty is XOLY LIMITED, a Delaware company; everyone else contracts with Holy Water Limited in Nicosia, Cyprus. Here, as with any vertical drama app, one more warning applies. Sites promising modded APKs, unlimited coins or free coin generators are unofficial, and they are not a safe way to watch anything. Canceling the pass, not looking for a hack, is the legitimate move if the price feels steep.
Verdict: A Challenger With Hollywood in Its Corner
Measured by install counts, My Drama is not the largest vertical drama app, and it is not close. What it offers instead is an unusual combination: a Kyiv founding story, a Fox equity partner committed to more than 200 titles, fresh funding from January 2026 and a Webby on the shelf. Viewers get a practical benefit in Apple TV support, which ReelShort, for one, does not list. The catch is the same one that plagues every rival: a weekly pass of about $19.99 that renews quietly in the background. ShortMax, with its 50,000+ dramas, is the more obvious choice if you simply want the largest claimed library. If you want Fox-produced romance and the option to watch on a television, the My Drama app earns a place on your home screen. Either way, create a reminder the day you subscribe, and cancel through your store account rather than trusting the delete button.
