How a Kyiv Studio Wagered on the Vertical Drama
Holywater didn’t start life as a television business. The business was launched in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2020 by Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov, and its product lineup still looks more like a lab for mobile entertainment than a streaming platform. My Drama shares the portfolio with My Passion for dramaboxmovies.org/series/the-unwanted-bride-of-atticus-fawn books, My Muse for AI and FreeBits. That range is telling, because it points to a business that treats video as one consumer product among several rather than its complete identity. Ultimately, it made its wager on the vertical drama, a format born in China as duanju and framed 9:16 for a phone held upright. Breaking into this market was daring for a small Ukrainian company, since the genre’s biggest names were supported by Chinese and Singaporean groups.
The My Drama App Launches in Spring 2024
The My Drama app arrived in spring 2024, although the precise date hinges on which listing you believe. Google Play lists March 13, 2024, the App Store lists May 9, 2024, and TechCrunch dated the launch in April. Judging by the difference between those store dates, Android likely came first and the iPhone version followed about two months later. The opening slate was heavily built around the genre’s best-loved tropes. Most of what you need to know about the style is clear in initial titles such as The Shy Beauty and the Billionaire Beast and Love Captive to a Mafia Boss. What in the end set the company apart was not the stories themselves but the partner it would soon be making them with.
The Fox Deal, a $22M Round and a Webby
October 2025 was the month My Drama stopped being a startup curiosity. Fox Entertainment took an equity stake in Holywater, with an agreement that included a commitment to produce more than 200 vertical titles over two years. A $22M round led by Horizon Capital followed three months later, in January 2026, when Holywater raised the money. Among the Fox-produced titles on the platform are Billionaire Blackmail, Bound by Obsession and My Heart’s Offside. In its App Store listing, the company displays another credential: a Webby Award for Best Streaming Service from 2025. Those milestones, taken together, hand My Drama a rare asset that few rivals can claim: a major American studio serving as both shareholder and producer.
My Drama: The Fact File
The table below gives the condensed version of the story for when you only have a moment. It pulls together the ownership, legal, platform and pricing details that matter most to a new viewer. The prices are the ones displayed in 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. Which legal entity you deal with depends on where you live, a detail that becomes relevant if you ever need to dispute a charge. The install count is taken from Google Play, where the app lists 5M+ downloads.
| Topic | Information |
|---|---|
| Parent company | Holywater (established in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2020) |
| Co-founders | Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov |
| Related apps | My Passion (books), My Muse (AI), FreeBits |
| Legal entity for 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, Apple TV (tvOS 18+), Vision Pro, Android, web |
| Android installs | 5M+ via Google Play |
| Full access pass | Roughly $19.99 a week, auto-renewing |
| Coin bundles | Around $4.99 to $24.99 |
| Premium plans | Roughly $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 |
| Honors | Webby Award, Best Streaming Service, 2025 |
What It Feels Like to Watch My Drama
The core experience is the one the entire category is built on. Episodes are vertical, formatted for an upright phone, and in this genre they typically last a minute or two before a cliffhanger nudges you to the next one. Series often run anywhere from 20 to 100 episodes, so a single story can silently eat up an evening in short bites. What really marks this drama app apart is the range of screens it supports. On top of iPhone, iPad and Android, it appears for Apple TV running tvOS 18 or later and for Vision Pro. ReelShort’s App Store listing, for comparison, shows no Apple TV version at all, which suggests that that big-screen option is rarer than you might think. Although a 9:16 frame will never fill a widescreen television, the option transforms a solo phone habit into something a couple can watch together.
In terms of content, the catalog blends Holywater’s own early productions with the growing Fox slate. As titles like Billionaire Blackmail and Bound by Obsession make clear, the Fox releases stick close to the genre’s familiar formula. Here, the candid caveat is scale. At 5M+ installs on Google Play, the app has a fraction of the 100M+ that ReelShort, DramaBox and ShortMax each show. In 2026, this gap makes clear that My Drama is a well-financed challenger rather than the category leader.
My Drama Pricing in 2026
Of the three ways Holywater sells access, the weekly pass carries the key figure. In the US App Store as of September 2026, “My Drama: Full Access” is priced at roughly $19.99 a week. The weekly passes from ReelShort, ShortMax, DramaWave and GoodShort are listed at about the same price in the same store, which places My Drama on par with them. Coin bundles, which unlock individual episodes, cost from about $4.99 to $24.99. With a separate Premium tier listed at roughly $4.99 to $9.99, lighter viewers have lower-cost entry points than the full pass. Until you cancel it, the weekly subscription keeps renewing, just as its rivals’ plans do. Country, platform and promotion all change prices, so the figure on your own device may be different. Run the numbers before signing up: at four renewals, a $19.99 weekly pass adds up to about $80 a month.
Before You Pay: The Terms to Know
The fine print in My Drama’s terms of use deserves more attention than most viewers give it. Coin purchases are final, so there is no easy refund if a series disappoints after you unlock it. After 12 months of inactivity, coins are also forfeited, so a balance you ignore for a year can simply vanish. Viewers in the EU and UK receive a 14-day right of withdrawal, reflecting the consumer rules in those markets. Except where the law requires otherwise, web purchases are labeled non-refundable. Most important of all, the terms state plainly 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 handled by Apple or Google, not by Holywater.
It is also useful to know exactly who stands 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. In this case, 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. When the price seems steep, the legitimate move is to cancel the pass, not to hunt for a hack.
Our Verdict: A Challenger With Hollywood in Its Corner
My Drama is not the biggest vertical drama app, and going by install counts it is not even close. Rather, it offers an uncommon 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. The practical upside for viewers is Apple TV support, something ReelShort, for one, does not list. A weekly pass of roughly $19.99 that renews quietly in the background is the catch, the same one that dogs every rival. If you want Fox-produced romance and the option to watch on a TV, the My Drama app earns a place on your home screen. ShortMax, with its 50,000+ dramas, is the more obvious pick if you simply want the largest claimed library. Either way, create a reminder the day you subscribe, and cancel through your store account rather than trusting the delete button.