The Vertical Drama Wager of a Kyiv Studio
At first, Holywater was not a television business. The company was set up in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2020 by Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov, and its portfolio still reads more like a lab for mobile entertainment than a streaming service. My Passion covers books, My Muse handles AI, and FreeBits completes the set alongside My Drama. That spread is important, because it describes a company that regards video as one of several consumer products rather than its complete identity. In the end, it put its bet on the vertical drama, a format born in China as duanju and framed My Husband Pretended To Be Poor 9:16 for a phone held upright. The groups behind the category’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 Launches
Spring 2024 saw the arrival of the My Drama app, though the precise date depends on which record you trust. According to TechCrunch, the launch happened in April, while Google Play lists March 13, 2024, and the App Store lists May 9, 2024. Those store dates suggest that Android launched first, with the iPhone version arriving about two months later. The genre’s most popular tropes shaped the first slate. The Shy Beauty and the Billionaire Beast and Love Captive to a Mafia Boss were some of the first titles, and the names alone reveal most of what you need to know about the mood. What eventually distinguished the company was not the stories themselves but the partner it would soon be making them with.
A Fox Deal, a $22M Round and a Webby
October 2025 was the month My Drama ceased to be a startup curiosity. An equity stake in Holywater went to Fox Entertainment, and the agreement came with a pledge to produce 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 platform. Horizon Capital led a $22M round in Holywater three months later, in January 2026. On its App Store listing, the company features another credential: a Webby Award for Best Streaming Service from 2025. Combined, those milestones hand My Drama something few rivals can claim, namely a major American studio acting as both shareholder and producer.
My Drama at a Glance
If you only have a minute, the table below offers the short version of the story. New viewers will find the ownership, legal, platform and pricing details that matter most to them collected here. Prices are the ones shown in the US App Store as of September 2026. Use them as a guide rather than a quote, as they vary by country, platform and promotion. The app shows 5M+ downloads on Google Play, which is the store the install count refers to. Which legal entity you contract with is determined by where you live, a point that becomes relevant if you ever need to contest a charge.
| Item | Specifics |
|---|---|
| Parent company | Holywater (established in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2020) |
| Co-founders | Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov |
| Sister apps | My Passion (books), My Muse (AI), FreeBits |
| Contracting entity, US users | XOLY LIMITED (Delaware) |
| Legal entity for other users | Holy Water Limited (Nicosia, Cyprus) |
| Launch date | 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 | Google Play: 5M+ |
| Full-access pass | Roughly $19.99 a week, renewing automatically |
| Coin packs | Roughly $4.99 to $24.99 |
| Premium tier | Roughly $4.99 to $9.99 |
| Studio backer | Fox Entertainment, equity stake since October 2025, 200+ titles over two years |
| Investment | $22M in January 2026, led by Horizon Capital |
| Recognition | Webby Award for Best Streaming Service, 2025 |
What It Feels Like to Watch My Drama
The central experience matches the one the whole category is built on. In this genre, episodes generally last a minute or two before a cliffhanger nudges you toward the next one, and they are vertical, sized for a phone held upright. With series often running anywhere from 20 to 100 episodes, one story can quietly swallow an evening in short bites. Where this drama app really stands out is the range of screens it supports. Beyond iPhone, iPad and Android, it is listed for Apple TV on tvOS 18 or later and for Vision Pro. That big-screen option is less common than you might expect, since ReelShort’s App Store listing, for comparison, shows no Apple TV version at all. Although a 9:16 frame will never fill a widescreen TV, the option turns a solo phone habit into something a couple can enjoy together.
Holywater’s own early productions and the growing Fox slate make up the library, which blends the two. The Fox releases stick close to the genre’s established formula, as titles like Billionaire Blackmail and Bound by Obsession make obvious. Scale is where the candid caveat comes in. At 5M+ installs on Google Play, the app has a small fraction of the 100M+ that ReelShort, DramaBox and ShortMax each show. In 2026, this gap tells you that My Drama is a well-financed challenger rather than the category leader.
Pricing: What My Drama Costs in 2026
Access comes three ways, and the key figure is the weekly pass. As of September 2026, the US App Store lists «My Drama: Full Access» at roughly $19.99 per week. ReelShort, ShortMax, DramaWave and GoodShort list their weekly passes at about the same price in the same store, so the app is level with them. At about $4.99 to $24.99, coin bundles open up individual episodes. A separate Premium tier is listed at around $4.99 to $9.99, so lighter viewers have less expensive entry points than the full pass. Country, platform and promotion all affect prices, so the figure on your own device may be different. The weekly subscription auto-renews until you cancel it, like its rivals’ plans. Before committing, do the arithmetic: four renewals of a $19.99 weekly pass add up to roughly $80 a month.
Terms Worth Knowing Before You Pay
The terms of use for My Drama include fine print that deserves more attention than most viewers give it. Coin purchases are final, so there is 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. In the EU and UK, there is a 14-day right of withdrawal, which reflects the consumer rules in those markets. Anything you buy on the web is described as non-refundable except where the law requires otherwise. Deleting the app does not cancel your subscription, and the terms say this plainly, and that is the most important point of all. To cancel on an iPhone, go to Settings, then your name, then Subscriptions; on Android, go through the Subscriptions menu in Google Play. For store purchases, refunds are handled by Apple or Google, not by Holywater.
It is also wise to know exactly who sits on the other side of the contract. For US users, the contracting party is XOLY LIMITED, a Delaware company; everyone else contracts with Holy Water Limited in Nicosia, Cyprus. Another 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 such sites are not a safe way to watch anything. When the price seems too high, the legitimate move is to cancel the pass, not to go hunting for a hack.
The Verdict: A Challenger Backed by Hollywood
My Drama is not the biggest vertical drama app, and judging by install counts it is not even close. 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 make up the unusual combination it offers instead. The practical advantage for viewers is Apple TV support, something ReelShort, for one, does not list. The catch remains the same one that plagues every rival: a weekly pass of roughly $19.99 that renews quietly in the background. The My Drama app deserves a place on your home screen if you want Fox-produced romance and the option to watch on a TV. ShortMax, with its 50,000+ dramas, is the more obvious pick if you simply want the largest claimed library. Whichever you pick, cancel through your store account rather than trusting the delete button, and set a reminder the day you subscribe.