A Kyiv Studio Puts Its Wager on the Vertical Drama
Television was not where Holywater started out. Back in 2020 Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov set up the company in Kyiv, Ukraine, and its portfolio to this day reads more like a lab for mobile entertainment than a streaming platform. My Drama shares the portfolio with My Passion for books, My Muse for AI and FreeBits. This mix is telling, since it reveals a business that treats video as one consumer product among several rather than its entire identity. The vertical drama, my drama a format born in China as duanju and framed 9:16 for a phone held upright, was where it eventually placed its wager. The groups behind the sector’s biggest names were Chinese and Singaporean, which made this a daring market for a small Ukrainian company to enter.
Spring 2024 and the Debut of the My Drama App
Spring 2024 saw the launch of the My Drama app, although the precise date depends on which record you believe. The launch timing differs by source: TechCrunch put it in April, Google Play shows March 13, 2024, and the App Store lists May 9, 2024. Android seems to have come first, since the difference between those store dates indicates, with the iPhone version following about two months later. The genre’s go-to tropes filled the opening slate. Initial titles like 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. What ultimately set the company apart was not the stories themselves but the partner it would soon be making them with.
A Fox Deal, a $22M Raise and a Webby
The month My Drama ceased to be a startup curiosity was October 2025. 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. Billionaire Blackmail, Bound by Obsession and My Heart’s Offside are among the Fox-produced titles on the app. Three months later, in January 2026, Holywater secured $22M in a funding round led by Horizon Capital. On its App Store listing, the company displays another credential: a Webby Award for Best Streaming Service from 2025. These milestones, taken together, give My Drama a distinctive advantage that few rivals can claim: a major American studio serving as both shareholder and producer.
My Drama: The Fact File
The condensed version of the story is in the table below, for readers who only have a minute. The ownership, legal, platform and pricing details that matter most to a new viewer are collected in one place. As of September 2026, the prices are those listed in the US App Store. They change by country, platform and promotion, so use them as a guide rather than a firm quote. Which legal entity you contract with depends on where you live, a detail that becomes relevant if you ever need to contest a charge. The app shows 5M+ downloads on Google Play, which is the store the install figure refers to.
| Topic | Specifics |
|---|---|
| Owner | Holywater, founded in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2020 |
| Founders | Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov |
| Companion 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) |
| Launch date | Spring 2024 (Google Play on March 13; App Store on May 9) |
| Supported platforms | iPhone, iPad, Android, Apple TV (tvOS 18+), Vision Pro and web |
| Android downloads | Google Play: 5M+ |
| Full-access plan | About $19.99 a week, renewing automatically |
| Coin packs | Roughly $4.99 to $24.99 |
| Premium tier | Around $4.99 to $9.99 |
| Production partner | Fox Entertainment, equity stake held since October 2025, 200+ titles over two years |
| Investment | $22M raised in January 2026, led by Horizon Capital |
| Awards | Webby Award, Best Streaming Service, 2025 |
How Watching on My Drama Feels
The central experience is the one the whole category is built on. Episodes are vertical and sized for an upright phone; in this genre they generally last one or two minutes, and then a cliffhanger nudges you toward the next one. A single story can quietly swallow an evening in small bites, because series often run anywhere from 20 to 100 episodes. The range of screens it supports is where this drama app truly distinguishes itself. Besides iPhone, iPad and Android, listings show it for Vision Pro and for Apple TV on tvOS 18 or later. ReelShort’s App Store listing, for comparison, shows no Apple TV version at all, which underlines that that big-screen option is less common than you might expect. A 9:16 frame will never fill a widescreen TV, but the option converts a solo phone habit into something a couple can enjoy together.
Content-wise, the library blends Holywater’s own early productions with the growing Fox slate. As titles like Billionaire Blackmail and Bound by Obsession make obvious, the Fox releases stick close to the genre’s familiar formula. Here, the candid caveat is scale. ReelShort, DramaBox and ShortMax each list 100M+ installs on Google Play, whereas My Drama lists 5M+, a fraction of that. That gap reveals where My Drama stands in 2026: a well-financed challenger rather than the category leader.
Pricing: How Much My Drama Costs in 2026
Holywater sells access three ways, and the key figure is the weekly pass. As of September 2026, the US App Store prices “My Drama: Full Access” at around $19.99 a week. That places it on par with the weekly passes from ReelShort, ShortMax, DramaWave and GoodShort, which are listed at about the same price in the same store. Coin packs, which are used to unlock individual episodes, run from roughly $4.99 to $24.99. Lighter viewers have lower-cost entry points than the full pass, since a separate Premium tier is listed at roughly $4.99 to $9.99. The figure on your own screen may differ, as prices change by country, platform and promotion. As with its rivals’ plans, the weekly subscription auto-renews until you cancel the plan. Before you commit, do the math: four renewals of a $19.99 weekly pass come to around $80 a month.
The Terms Worth Reading Before You Pay
My Drama’s terms of use include fine print that deserves more attention than most viewers pay it. Coin purchases are final, so there is no easy refund if a series lets you down after you unlock it. A balance you ignore for a year can simply vanish, since coins are forfeited after 12 months of inactivity. Purchases 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. The terms make it clear, most importantly, that deleting the app does not cancel your subscription. On an iPhone you cancel under Settings, then your name, then Subscriptions, while Android users use the Subscriptions menu in Google Play. Refunds for store purchases are processed by Apple or Google, not by Holywater.
It is also useful to know exactly who stands on the other side of the contract. XOLY LIMITED, a Delaware company, handles US users, while everyone else contracts with Holy Water Limited in Nicosia, Cyprus. One more warning applies here as much as to any vertical drama app. Any site promising modded APKs, unlimited coins or free coin generators is unofficial, and it is not a safe way to watch anything. The legitimate response to a steep price is to cancel the pass, not to hunt for a hack.
Verdict: A Challenger With Hollywood in Its Corner
My Drama is not the largest vertical drama app, and judging by install counts it is not close. Instead, it offers an unlikely combination: a Kyiv founding story, a Fox equity partner signed up for more than 200 titles, fresh funding from January 2026 and a Webby on the shelf. The practical advantage for viewers is Apple TV support, something ReelShort, for one, does not list. The downside remains the same one that dogs every rival: a weekly pass of about $19.99 that renews quietly in the background. The My Drama app earns a place on your home screen if you want Fox-produced romance and the option to watch on a TV. For viewers who simply want the largest claimed library, ShortMax and its 50,000+ dramas are the more obvious choice. In both cases, create a reminder on the day you subscribe and cancel through your store account instead of trusting the delete button.
