At My Drama — the leading vertical streaming platform among American and European companies — our goal with Shy Beauty and the Billionaire Beast was to demonstrate that vertical series can deliver the comfort, charm, and emotional pull of a modern fairytale while achieving the visual quality audiences expect from top-tier romance storytelling.
As one of the first titles ever released on My Drama, this project carried a clear objective: establish a benchmark for what premium vertical romance could look like. The series embraces a classic narrative — a shy heroine, an untouchable billionaire, and a world of secrets and emotional transformation — and reimagines it through a mobile-native lens built for short, captivating episodes.
The creative focus was on crafting a visually polished romance that feels cinematic even within 1–2 minute chapters: expressive lighting, intimate close-ups, warm palettes, and compositions designed to heighten emotional stakes on small screens. Our aim was to prove that traditional romance tropes, when treated with care and visual intention, can translate beautifully into vertical storytelling.
The production of Shy Beauty and the Billionaire Beast was developed through HOLYWATER’s technology-driven content ecosystem — an integrated pipeline that allows us to identify strong stories, validate them through real audience data, and bring the most promising concepts into full cinematic vertical production. My Drama operates alongside our two foundational platforms: My Passion, the leading independent digital book platform among non-Chinese companies, and My Muse, the top vertical app for AI-supported series testing. Together, they allow us to refine both story and execution long before filming begins.
The process began on My Passion, where the novel showed exceptional engagement with its modern-fairytale dynamic — a shy waitress, a cold billionaire, a debt-turned-secretary arrangement, and a slow-burn tension between freedom and obsession. Its strong emotional footprint moved the project into My Muse, where we created AI-generated pilots to test tone, pacing, hooks, and character chemistry. Audience reactions during this stage helped shape the visual approach and storytelling rhythm, ensuring the series structure would work in short, compelling episodes.
Once validated, the title entered full production for My Drama. Our creative focus was to translate a classic romance into a polished vertical format built for binge watching. The story follows Ana, whose life changes after she spills coffee on billionaire Jaxon Terrace and is forced to work off her debt as his secretary — only to discover his growing obsession may either trap her or transform her life.
This blend of data-informed story discovery, AI-assisted pre-production, and polished live-action execution is what defines Shy Beauty and the Billionaire Beast — and reflects how the HOLYWATER pipeline brings premium cinematic romance into the vertical entertainment landscape.
Shy Beauty and the Billionaire Beast became one of My Drama’s most impactful early releases, strongly validating the audience demand for modern fairytale romance in vertical format. The series generated over 5 billion impressions, reflecting both high viewer interest and strong traction across marketing channels. Engagement patterns showed consistent completion and rewatch behavior, confirming the effectiveness of the story’s emotional pacing and mobile-native structure.
The title also achieved notable industry recognition. At Verticon & Vertical Awards Hollywood, the series won Best Foreign Vertical, reinforcing its status as a standout international project and highlighting its cinematic quality within the growing vertical entertainment landscape.
These results demonstrated that visually polished, character-driven romance can perform at scale on mobile, helping establish My Drama’s reputation for premium vertical storytelling and contributing to HOLYWATER’s broader mission of shaping the future of vertical entertainment.
