Who owns Jiohotstar.com? An app developer and he wants Jio to pay him lakhs

In the bustling city of Delhi, an app developer with a big dream of studying at Cambridge found the perfect opportunity to fulfil his ambition, and his quick wit is now impressing the internet. In early 2023, as he scrolled through social media, a particular headline caught his eye: Disney+ Hotstar was losing daily active users after the loss of IPL streaming rights, and Disney might be looking to sell or merge its popular streaming platform with an Indian competitor. It was a classic tale of disruption, but this techie saw something more — a chance to turn his own dreams into reality.
With the intuition of a startup founder and the quick reflexes of a coder, he began piecing together a puzzle. Earlier this year, the merger between Star India, which runs Disney+ Hotstar, and Viacom18, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, received approval for a merger, which is anticipated to unify the streaming platforms under a single brand. This merger is yet to be finalised.
However, the Delhi-based app developer looked for a pattern here. He noticed that Reliance had a history of buying promising platforms and rebranding them. For instance, Saavn.com was acquired by Reliance and turned into JioSaavn.com. Maybe they would do the same with Hotstar, he thought. And thus, an idea was born. With fingers crossed, he checked the availability of the domain JioHotstar.com. To his surprise, it was up for grabs! He quickly snatched it, dreaming of the day when his seemingly quirky move might pay off in a big way.
“This led me to hypothesise 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.” 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,” he wrote in a blogpost posted on JioHotstar.com.
This wasn’t just about clever domain squatting, though. For him, it could be a ticket to something bigger — a degree in entrepreneurship from the prestigious halls of Cambridge University. He had tasted the Cambridge experience before, having been selected for their Accelerate program back in 2021. “In 2021, I was working on a project that was selected for the Cambridge University Accelerate program. It was a transformational experience for me,” he wrote. “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,” he added.
However, now, with the domain JioHotstar.com in hand, his plan was simple: if the merger between Viacom18 and Disney+ Hotstar goes through, he would sell the domain to Reliance. He pictured it: an email from a Reliance executive, offering to buy the domain. The funds from that sale would make his dream of studying at Cambridge finally come true.
As the merger is set to happen, the app developer now only hopes that Reliance would consider buying his domain. He has even made a case for his domain to be “a very fitting brand name for the merger entity”. “Now that the merger has actually happened, and news sources are confirming there will be only one site post-merger (either JioCinema or Hotstar.com), I believe JioHotstar.com would be a very fitting brand name for the merged entity. It maintains the brand equity of both brands and provides a rational transition for the current users of both sites,” the post reads.
To the billion-dollar company, buying the domain would be a small expense. But for this dreamer, it would be “truly life-changing” — a golden ticket to fulfilling his ambitions and leaving a mark on both the tech world and the academic realm.
For now, he waits, domain in hand, with a mix of excitement and nerves, hoping that the unlikely path he charted might just lead to Cambridge. And if it all works out, it will be the story of how a little wit and a whole lot of hope turned a digital domain into a real-life dream.