In a very interesting twist of events, the domain name Jiohotstar.com has been in the news after an open letter was posted on the site for Reliance Industries which owns the brand Jio.
With the JioCinema and Hotstar merger now taking place, the fact that the website domain name has been taken could cause trouble for the company. But the open letter on the domain site, owned by an anonymous app developer claims that he wants to sell the domain name so that he can do an entrepreneurship course at Cambridge University in the UK.
Jiohotstar Website Domain Name
A few days ago, screenshots started circulating about an open letter on a website called jiohotstar(.)com.
One user wrote “Someone bought the JioHotstar domain (before the merger) and wants Reliance to fund their higher studies from domain sale. Really hope they can get a good payout from this!”
Another commented, “The Brains and vision he had, it’s the Cambridge guys who needs to visit him and not vice cersa.”
Many others did not think that the owner would get anything and could instead be asking for trouble. One user commented that the domain owner would probably get sued while another wrote “All jio need to do is file for transfer of domain with ICANN with documentation and it will be transferred within hours. What this person will get is nothing and probably some legal trouble.”
Others commented on what could potentially happen now with user @shantanugoel writing “This person has shot themselves further in the foot by self-identifying as a domain squatter and they don’t own those trademarks anyways. This will be a open and shut UDRP proceeding.”
User @kmskrishna wrote, “They would just send a copyright infringement notice to the registrar and get the domain for free.”
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Jiohotstar.com Owned By Who?
The much talked about domain name is owned by a 28-year-old entrepreneur from Delhi, who is now asking for over ₹1 crore (around £93,345) for a buyout and to eventually accomplish his dream of studying an executive MBA program at Cambridge University.
In his letter, he talked about how he noticed a pattern by Jio to rebrand a platform after any merger, giving the example of Saavn, a music streaming platform, that was changed to JioSavvn after the acquisition. Given that talks of a Jio and Hotstar merger had been doing the rounds, he anticipated that something similar would happen with this too.
He wrote, “I am an app developer based in Delhi, currently working on my startup. In early 2023, while scrolling through social media, I came across a news piece stating that Disney+ Hotstar was losing daily active users after losing the IPL streaming license, and Disney is considering selling or merging Hotstar with an Indian competitor.
This led me to hypothesize that, since Sony and Zee were pursuing their own merger, Viacom 18 (owned by Reliance) is the only major player with sufficient resources to acquire Disney+ Hotstar.
This reminded me of when Jio acquired the music streaming service Saavn, they rebranded it to JioSaavn, and changed the domain from Saavn.com to JioSaavn.com. I thought, “If they acquire Hotstar, they might rename it to JioHotstar.com.”
The developer addressing both Viacom and Reliance Industries talked about how he sees this as an opportunity to collect funds that would eventually allow him to study at Cambridge, which has been a dream of his.
He wrote, “I checked for the domain, and it was available. I was excited, as I felt that if this happened, I could fund my goal of studying at Cambridge.”
The domain owner talked about how in 2021 a project of theirs was selected for the Cambridge University Accelerate program and coming from a Tier-II city and being unable to crack the IIT, the experience was invaluable and provided important insights into startups.
Given that it was just a startup problem it was limited in scope, however, “Cambridge also offers a full degree program in entrepreneurship, which I’ve always dreamed of pursuing but could never afford, It’s Cambridge, quite expensive.
When I saw this domain become available, I felt things might just fall into place. My intention of buying this domain was simple: if this merger happens, I might be able to fulfill my dream of studying at Cambridge.”
He concluded the note by saying, “For a multi-billion dollar company like Reliance, this will be a minor expense, but for me, the sale of this domain would be truly life-changing.”
Recent Update
On 24 October, the site posted an updated writing “An executive from Reliance reached out- Ambujesh Yadav Ji, AVP, Commercials. A request was made for £93,345, which represents the tuition fees for the EMBA program. The request has been denied.
Reliance will proceed with legal action. I hope they will reconsider this kind request. I wish such a large group could help. Thank you to all who shared and sent kind words. I don’t have the power to stand against Reliance.
I don’t feel I infringed any trademark when I bought this in 2023, since JioHotstar was not even in existence at that time. No body had trademark for JioHotstar when I bought it. I might automatically lose access of this domain in few hours. If any legal professional could help, I would be grateful.”
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: Livemint, India Today, Hindustan Times
Find the blogger: @chirali_08
This post is tagged under: Jiohotstar, Jiohotstar.com, reliance, reliance industries, jio, hotstar, jio hotstar merger, delhi app developer, Cambridge,
Disclaimer: We do not hold any right, or copyright over any of the images used, these have been taken from Google. In case of credits or removal, the owner may kindly mail us.
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