Dubai siblings now offer JioHotstar domain to Reliance for free

Dubai-based siblings Jainam Jain, 13, and Jivika Jain, 10, have announced that they are willing to transfer ownership of the domain name "jiohotstar.com" to Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries, free of charge. The siblings, who initially acquired the domain to support a young developer's education, shared a message on the website clarifying that they have no commercial motives behind the ownership of the domain.

"Hello, everyone! We hope you are doing well. Today, we want to share an important update about jiohotstar.com, a domain we bought some time ago," the siblings wrote. "For those who don’t know, we bought this domain from a young developer in Delhi to help him with his education. This was part of our efforts to support and uplift others."

Jainam and Jivika clarified that they never intended to profit from the domain name.

"Over the last few weeks, there has been a lot of talk and even some videos about why we own the domain and if it connects to a possible business deal between Jio and Hotstar," the message continued. "We want to clear up any confusion: we never expected this attention and never meant to cause any controversy. Our only goal was to support the developer and share our seva (service) journey."

"With all the discussions happening, we now think it might be best for Team Reliance to have this domain, if they want it. We are happy to give jiohotstar.com to them for free, with all the proper paperwork. To be clear, this is entirely our choice. No one from Reliance or any legal group has contacted us or pressured us in any way," they added.

The original domain holder, an anonymous app developer from Delhi, had reportedly acquired "jiohotstar.com" in early 2023 after rumours circulated about a potential merger involving JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar. As Reliance previously rebranded its music streaming service to "JioSaavn" after acquiring Saavn, the developer expected a similar rebranding if a merger with Hotstar were to take place.

According to the developer, he hoped that selling the domain could enable him to finance an executive MBA at Cambridge, given that his startup project had previously been selected for the prestigious university’s Accelerate program.

However, Reliance Industries refused to entertain any deal with him when he reached out, reported PTI, prompting him to sell the domain to the Dubai siblings, who said they bought the domain as a “part of our efforts to support and uplift others.”

It is yet to be seen how the new twist in the tale will play out.