How a Kyiv Studio Gambled on the Vertical Drama
Holywater didn’t start its life as a TV company. It was in 2020 that Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov established the studio in Kyiv, Ukraine, and its range of products to this day reads more like a mobile entertainment lab than a streaming network. My Passion covers books, My Muse handles AI, and FreeBits completes the lineup alongside My Drama. The range is telling: it points to a company for which video is one consumer product among several, not its entire identity. The bet it ultimately made was on the vertical drama, a format that began in China as duanju and is framed 9:16 for an upright phone. The category’s leading names reel shorts online were supported by Chinese and Singaporean groups, so breaking into this market was a daring move for a small Ukrainian company.
Spring 2024: The My Drama App Arrives
During spring 2024, the My Drama app launched, though the exact date depends on which source you believe. TechCrunch put the launch in April, Google Play gives March 13, 2024, and the App Store shows May 9, 2024. Going by the gap between those store dates, Android probably came first and the iPhone version arrived about two months later. The initial slate was built around the genre’s favorite tropes. Initial titles such as The Shy Beauty and the Billionaire Beast and Love Captive to a Mafia Boss reveal most of what you need to know about the mood through their names alone. It was not the stories themselves that eventually set the company apart, but the collaborator it would soon be producing them with.
Fox, $22M in Fresh Funding and a Webby Award
October 2025 was the month My Drama ceased to be a startup curiosity. An equity stake in Holywater was taken by Fox Entertainment, and the agreement carried a pledge to make more than 200 vertical titles over two years. Fox-produced titles on the platform include Billionaire Blackmail, Bound by Obsession and My Heart’s Offside. Horizon Capital headed a $22M 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 features it on its App Store listing. Few rivals can boast what those milestones hand My Drama, namely a big American studio serving as both shareholder and producer.
My Drama at a Glance
If you only have a minute, the table below offers the quick version of the story. It collects in one place the details on ownership, legal matters, platforms and pricing that count most to a first-time viewer. The prices come from the US App Store as of September 2026. Country, platform and promotion all affect them, so read them as a rough guide rather than a quote. On Google Play, the source of the install figure, the app shows 5M+ downloads. Where you live decides the legal entity you contract with, a detail that becomes relevant if you ever need to dispute a charge.
| Category | Information |
|---|---|
| Owned by | Holywater (established in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2020) |
| Co-founders | Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov |
| Companion apps | My Passion (books), My Muse (AI), FreeBits |
| Legal entity for US users | XOLY LIMITED (Delaware) |
| Contracting entity, other users | Holy Water Limited (Nicosia, Cyprus) |
| Launch | Spring 2024 (Google Play: March 13; App Store: May 9) |
| Platforms | iPhone, iPad, Android, Apple TV (tvOS 18+), Vision Pro and web |
| Installs on Android | 5M+ via Google Play |
| Full-access plan | Around $19.99 a week, renewing automatically |
| Coin packages | About $4.99 to $24.99 |
| Premium plans | Roughly $4.99 to $9.99 |
| Studio partner | Fox Entertainment, equity stake held since October 2025, 200+ titles over two years |
| Latest funding | $22M in January 2026, led by Horizon Capital |
| Honors | Webby Award for Best Streaming Service, 2025 |
The My Drama Viewing Experience
The central experience is the one the whole category is built on. Episodes are vertical and formatted for a phone held upright; in this genre they typically last one or two minutes, and then a cliffhanger propels you toward the next one. Series often run anywhere from 20 to 100 episodes, so a single story can quietly consume an evening in small bites. The range of screens it supports is where this drama app really distinguishes itself. On top of iPhone, iPad and Android, the app is listed for Apple TV running tvOS 18 or later and for Vision Pro. That big-screen option is rarer than you might think, since ReelShort’s App Store listing, for comparison, shows no Apple TV version at all. A 9:16 frame will never fill a widescreen television, but the option transforms a solo phone habit into something a couple can watch together.
In terms of content, the library mixes Holywater’s own early productions with the growing Fox slate. The Fox releases hew close to the genre’s well-worn formula, as titles like Billionaire Blackmail and Bound by Obsession make plain. Here, the candid caveat is scale. The app displays 5M+ installs on Google Play, a small fraction of the 100M+ that ReelShort, DramaBox and ShortMax each list. This gap places My Drama in 2026 as a well-funded challenger rather than the category leader.
Pricing: What My Drama Costs in 2026
The headline figure is the weekly pass, one of the three ways Holywater sells access. Around $19.99 per week is what “My Drama: Full Access” costs in the US App Store as of September 2026. This puts it level with the weekly passes from ReelShort, ShortMax, DramaWave and GoodShort, each listed at about the same price in the same store. Coin bundles, which unlock individual episodes, run from roughly $4.99 to $24.99. Lighter viewers have lower-cost entry points than the full pass, because a separate Premium tier is listed at around $4.99 to $9.99. Since prices differ by country, platform and promotion, the figure on your own screen may differ. Until you cancel it, the weekly subscription renews automatically, just as its rivals’ plans do. Run the numbers first: with four renewals, a $19.99 weekly pass adds up to around $80 a month.
Before You Pay: The Terms to Know
The fine print in My Drama’s terms of use merits more attention than most viewers give it. Every coin purchases are 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 you ignore for a year can simply disappear. Purchases made on the web are labeled non-refundable except where the law requires otherwise. Viewers in the EU and UK receive a 14-day right of withdrawal, in line with the consumer rules in those markets. Most important of all, the terms make it clear that deleting the app does not cancel your subscription. To cancel on an iPhone, open Settings, then your name, then Subscriptions; on Android, go through the Subscriptions menu in Google Play. Refunds for store purchases are processed by Apple or Google, not by Holywater.
It also helps to know exactly who sits on the other side of the contract. Everyone outside the US contracts with Holy Water Limited in Nicosia, Cyprus, while US users deal with XOLY LIMITED, a Delaware company. One more warning applies to My Drama as much as to any vertical drama app. Modded APKs, unlimited coins and free coin generators come from unofficial sites, and those sites are not a safe way to watch anything. If the price feels too high, the legitimate move is to cancel the pass, not to look for a hack.
Verdict: A Challenger With Hollywood on Its Side
My Drama is not the biggest vertical drama app, and judging by install counts it is not close. What it has instead is an unusual mix: 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 upside in Apple TV support, which ReelShort, for one, does not list. The catch remains the same one that dogs every rival: a weekly pass of roughly $19.99 that quietly renews in the background. If you want Fox-produced romance and the option to watch on a TV, the My Drama app deserves a place on your home screen. If you simply want the largest claimed library, ShortMax, with its 50,000+ dramas, is the more obvious choice. Whichever you pick, cancel through your store account rather than trusting the delete button, and create a reminder the day you subscribe.
