A Kyiv Studio Puts Its Bet on the Vertical Drama
Holywater wasn’t founded as a TV company. It was in 2020 that Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov founded the studio in Kyiv, Ukraine, and its lineup to this day reads more like a mobile entertainment lab than a streaming platform. My Drama sits beside My Passion for books, My Muse for AI and FreeBits. The spread is telling: it shows a company for which video is one of several consumer products, not its whole identity. The vertical drama, a format that began in China as duanju and The Unwanted Bride of Atticus Fawn drama is framed 9:16 for a phone held upright, was the bet it eventually made. The groups behind the category’s largest players were Chinese and Singaporean, making this a daring market for a small Ukrainian company to enter.
Spring 2024 and the Debut of the My Drama App
The exact date of the My Drama app depends on which record you believe, but it went live in spring 2024. TechCrunch dated the launch in April, Google Play gives March 13, 2024, and the App Store shows May 9, 2024. Going by the difference between those store dates, Android likely came first and the iPhone version followed about two months later. The genre’s most popular tropes shaped the opening slate. Initial titles such as The Shy Beauty and the Billionaire Beast and Love Captive to a Mafia Boss tell you most of what you need to know about the mood through their names alone. The studio was ultimately distinguished not by the stories themselves but by the partner it would soon be making them with.
The Fox Deal, a $22M Round and a Webby
The month My Drama stopped being a startup curiosity was October 2025. Fox Entertainment acquired an equity stake in Holywater, and the deal came with a pledge to produce more than 200 vertical titles over two years. Horizon Capital led a $22M funding round in Holywater three months later, in January 2026. Billionaire Blackmail, Bound by Obsession and My Heart’s Offside are among the Fox-produced titles on the app. The company also has a Webby Award for Best Streaming Service from 2025, a distinction it displays on its App Store listing. Few rivals can claim what those milestones give My Drama, namely a major American studio acting as both shareholder and producer.
My Drama at a Glance
For readers who only have a minute, the table below gives the condensed version of the story. The ownership, legal, platform and pricing details that count most to a new viewer are gathered in one place. Prices are the ones listed in the US App Store as of September 2026. Because they vary by country, platform and promotion, read them as a guide rather than a quote. On Google Play, the source of the install figure, the app lists 5M+ downloads. The legal entity you contract with depends on where you live, which is relevant if you ever need to challenge a charge.
| Topic | Specifics |
|---|---|
| Owned by | Holywater, set up in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2020 |
| Founded by | Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov |
| Sister apps | My Passion for books, My Muse for AI, plus FreeBits |
| Legal entity for US users | XOLY LIMITED (Delaware) |
| Contracting entity, other users | Holy Water Limited (Nicosia, Cyprus) |
| Release | Spring 2024 (Google Play: March 13; App Store: May 9) |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Android, Apple TV (tvOS 18+), Vision Pro and web |
| Installs on Android | Google Play: 5M+ |
| Full-access pass | Roughly $19.99 per week, with automatic renewal |
| Coin bundles | About $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 |
| Funding | $22M raised in January 2026, led by Horizon Capital |
| Recognition | 2025 Webby Award, Best Streaming Service |
What It Feels Like to Watch My Drama
The whole category is built on the same basic experience, and My Drama follows it. In this genre, episodes typically run a minute or two before a cliffhanger pushes you toward the next one, and they are vertical, sized for an upright phone. Series often run anywhere from 20 to 100 episodes, so a single story can silently consume an evening in bite-sized pieces. The range of screens it supports is where this drama app truly distinguishes itself. In addition to iPhone, iPad and Android, it is listed for Apple TV on 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 this big-screen option is rarer than you might think. Of course, a 9:16 frame will never fill a widescreen television, yet the option converts a solo phone habit into something a couple can enjoy together.
Holywater’s own early productions and the growing Fox slate share the catalog, blending the two. As titles like Billionaire Blackmail and Bound by Obsession make obvious, the Fox releases stay close to the genre’s well-worn formula. Scale is where the fair caveat comes in. ReelShort, DramaBox and ShortMax each list 100M+ installs on Google Play, whereas My Drama lists 5M+, a fraction of that. In 2026, that gap tells you that My Drama is a well-backed challenger rather than the category leader.
What My Drama Costs in 2026: Plans and Prices
Holywater sells access three ways, and the main figure is the weekly pass. As of September 2026, the US App Store prices “My Drama: Full Access” at roughly $19.99 per week. This places it on par with the weekly passes from ReelShort, ShortMax, DramaWave and GoodShort, all listed at about the same price in the same store. Coin packs, which unlock individual episodes, run from roughly $4.99 to $24.99. 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. Prices change by country, platform and promotion, so the figure on your own device may differ. Like its rivals’ plans, the weekly subscription auto-renews until you cancel it. Before you commit, run the numbers: four renewals of a $19.99 weekly pass come to around $80 a month.
Terms to Know Before You Pay
My Drama’s terms of use include fine print that merits more attention than most viewers give it. There is no easy refund if a series lets you down after you unlock it, as coin purchases are final. Coins are also forfeited after 12 months of inactivity, which means a balance you ignore for a year can simply disappear. In the EU and UK, there is a 14-day right of withdrawal, mirroring the consumer rules in those markets. Except where the law requires otherwise, web purchases are described as non-refundable. Deleting the app does not cancel your subscription, and the terms say so plainly, which is the most important point of all. On an iPhone you cancel under Settings, then your name, then Subscriptions, while Android users use the Subscriptions menu in Google Play. Apple or Google, not Holywater, handle refunds for store purchases.
It is also wise to know exactly who stands on the other side of the contract. XOLY LIMITED, a Delaware company, covers US users, whereas everyone else contracts with Holy Water Limited in Nicosia, Cyprus. As with any vertical drama app, a further warning applies here. Any site promising modded APKs, unlimited coins or free coin generators is unofficial, and it is not a safe way to watch anything. The proper response to a steep price is to cancel the pass, not to go hunting for a hack.
Verdict: A Challenger With Hollywood in Its Corner
My Drama is not the biggest vertical drama app, and on install counts it is not close. 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 add up to the unusual combination it offers instead. Viewers get a practical advantage 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 around $19.99 that quietly renews in the background. If you simply want the largest claimed library, ShortMax, with its 50,000+ dramas, is the more obvious pick. Viewers who want Fox-produced romance and the option to watch on a television will find that the My Drama app earns a place on their home screen. Whichever you pick, cancel through your store account rather than trusting the delete button, and set a reminder the day you subscribe.
