Indian developer buys JioHotstar.Com domain and now wants to sell it to Reliance

Even as Disney and Reliance finally negotiated a multibillion-dollar deal to merge their media assets in India, a random Indian found a clever way to profit from this corporate activity.

A Delhi-based Indian app developer purchased the domain name www.jiohotstar.com in early 2023 after realizing there was a good chance the two companies could merge operations. Almost two years later, when the merger has finally been consummated, he wants to sell the domain to Reliance at a high price. He says the money Reliance pays him for the domain will allow him to pursue his studies at Cambridge.

The homepage of jiohotstar.com currently has a letter written by this app developer on its homepage. “Dear Reliance Industries Executive,” the letter begins. “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 story 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.”

The app developer then details his thought process when purchasing the jiohotstar.com domain name. “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 enough resources to acquire Disney+ Hotstar. This reminded me of when Jio acquired music streaming service Saavn, they renamed it to JioSaavn and changed the domain from Saavn.com to JioSaavn.com. I thought, “If they acquire Hotstar, they can rename it JioHotstar.com.” I checked the domain and it was available. I was excited as I felt that if this happened it could fund my goal of studying at Cambridge,” he said.

The domain must have cost very little to the app developer – domains like these can cost as little as $10 per year. But with the Jio and Hotstar merger finally happening, it’s possible that Reliance will shell out a huge sum for JioHotstar.com – the developer says he wants to sell the domain to fund his Cambridge education, so it looks like he wants at least Rs. 1 crore for the domain.

And it’s not uncommon for companies to shell out large sums to get their hands on their branded domains. Housing.com paid $1 million to obtain the domain, and the Voice.com domain was sold for a record $30 million in 2019. As such, if Reliance indeed plans to brand its merged entity as JioHotstar, there is a good chance that you may end up purchasing the domain. And the Delhi-based developer’s foresight in predicting merger moves in India’s ongoing wars could end up sending him straight to Cambridge.