How a Kyiv Studio Bet on the Vertical Drama
Holywater didn’t start life as a TV outfit. Back in 2020 Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov established the company in Kyiv, Ukraine, and its range of products to this day reads more like a mobile entertainment laboratory than a streaming service. My Drama sits in a portfolio with My Passion for books, My Muse for AI and FreeBits. This breadth matters, since video is one consumer product among several drama box for the company, not its whole identity. The vertical drama, a format that began in China as duanju and is framed 9:16 for a phone held upright, was the bet it eventually made. The groups behind the sector’s biggest names were Chinese and Singaporean, making this a bold market for a small Ukrainian company to enter.
Spring 2024 and the Debut of the My Drama App
Spring 2024 saw the arrival of the My Drama app, although the precise date depends on which record you trust. TechCrunch put the launch in April, Google Play lists March 13, 2024, and the App Store shows May 9, 2024. Android seems to have come first, since the difference between those store dates suggests, with the iPhone version arriving about two months later. At launch, the slate relied heavily on the genre’s best-loved tropes. The first titles included The Shy Beauty and the Billionaire Beast and Love Captive to a Mafia Boss, names that tell you most of what you need to know about the tone. The collaborator it would soon be making them with, not the stories themselves, is what ultimately made it stand out.
The Fox Deal, a $22M Round and a Webby
During October 2025, My Drama stopped being a startup curiosity. Under an agreement that came with a commitment to make more than 200 vertical titles over two years, Fox Entertainment took an equity stake in Holywater. Then, in January 2026, three months later, Holywater raised $22M in a round led by Horizon Capital. Billionaire Blackmail, Bound by Obsession and My Heart’s Offside are among the Fox-produced titles on the service. The company also has a 2025 Webby Award for Best Streaming Service, an honor it features on its App Store listing. These milestones, taken together, hand My Drama a distinctive asset that few rivals can claim: a major American studio serving as both shareholder and producer.
My Drama at a Glance
If you only have a minute, the table below is the quick version of the story. It pulls together the ownership, legal, platform and pricing details that count most to a new viewer. The prices are the ones displayed in the US App Store as of September 2026. Because they vary by country, platform and promotion, treat them as a rough guide rather than a firm quote. The legal entity you contract with depends on where you live, which becomes relevant if you ever need to challenge a charge. The install count refers to Google Play, where the app shows 5M+ downloads.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Owned by | Holywater (established in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2020) |
| Co-founders | Bogdan Nesvit and Anatolii Kasianov |
| Sister apps | My Passion (books), My Muse (AI), FreeBits |
| Legal entity for 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, Apple TV (tvOS 18+), Vision Pro, Android, web |
| Installs on Android | Google Play: 5M+ |
| Full access pass | About $19.99 a week, auto-renewing |
| Coin packs | About $4.99 to $24.99 |
| Premium options | Roughly $4.99 to $9.99 |
| Studio partner | Fox Entertainment, equity stake held since October 2025, 200+ titles over two years |
| Funding | $22M raised in January 2026, led by Horizon Capital |
| Awards | Webby Award for Best Streaming Service, 2025 |
What It Feels Like to Watch My Drama
At its heart, the experience is the one the whole category is built on. Sized for a phone held upright, episodes are vertical, and in this genre they usually run one or two minutes before a cliffhanger nudges you toward the next. With series often running anywhere from 20 to 100 episodes, a single story can quietly swallow an evening in bite-sized pieces. The drama app really distinguishes itself through the range of screens it supports. It is listed for Apple TV on tvOS 18 or later and for Vision Pro, in addition to iPhone, iPad and Android. That big-screen option is more unusual than you might think, since ReelShort’s App Store listing, for comparison, shows no Apple TV version at all. The option turns a solo phone habit into something a couple can watch together, even though a 9:16 frame will never fill a widescreen TV.
As for content, the catalog combines Holywater’s own early productions with the growing Fox slate. The genre’s familiar formula remains the template for the Fox releases, as titles like Billionaire Blackmail and Bound by Obsession make clear. Scale is where the honest caveat comes in. The app shows 5M+ installs on Google Play, a small fraction of the 100M+ that ReelShort, DramaBox and ShortMax each show. This gap places My Drama in 2026 as a well-financed challenger rather than the category leader.
Pricing: How Much My Drama Costs in 2026
Holywater sells access in three ways, and the main figure is the weekly pass. “My Drama: Full Access” runs roughly $19.99 a week in the US App Store as of September 2026. 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, range from around $4.99 to $24.99. A separate Premium tier is listed at roughly $4.99 to $9.99, so lighter viewers have lower-cost entry points than the full pass. The weekly subscription renews automatically until you cancel it, like its rivals’ plans. Because prices vary by country, platform and promotion, the figure on your own screen may be different. Do the arithmetic before you commit, because four renewals of a $19.99 weekly pass total about $80 a month.
Terms to Check Before You Pay
Most viewers pay less attention than they should to the fine print in My Drama’s terms of use. Every coin purchase is final, which means no easy refund if a series disappoints after you unlock it. A balance you ignore for a year can simply disappear, since coins are forfeited after 12 months of inactivity. In the EU and UK, there is a 14-day right of withdrawal, which reflects the consumer rules in those markets. Except where the law requires otherwise, purchases made on the web are described as non-refundable. Most importantly, the terms say clearly that deleting the app does not cancel your subscription. To cancel on an iPhone, go to Settings, then your name, then Subscriptions; on Android, use the Subscriptions menu in Google Play. Holywater does not handle refunds for store purchases; Apple or Google does.
It is also wise to know exactly who sits 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. A further warning applies to My Drama as much as to any vertical drama app. 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 too high, the right step is cancelling the pass; do not go hunting for a hack.
The Verdict: A Challenger Backed by Hollywood
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 committed to more than 200 titles, fresh funding from January 2026 and a Webby on the shelf make up the uncommon combination it offers instead. ReelShort, for one, does not list Apple TV support, which makes it the practical upside for My Drama viewers. As with every rival, the drawback is a weekly pass of roughly $19.99 that keeps renewing quietly in the background. When the largest claimed library is all you want, ShortMax, with its 50,000+ dramas, is the more obvious pick. For Fox-produced romance and the option to watch on a television, the My Drama app earns a place on your home screen. Whatever you decide, never rely on the delete button: create a reminder the day you subscribe and cancel through your store account.
