The Dubai-based siblings Jainam and Jivika who currently own the jiohotstar.com domain have now decided to transfer it to Reliance “free of cost” as an act of “Seva” towards the Delhi-based developer who previously owned it.
“Today, we write to you with mixed emotions. Our journey with jiohotstar.com is coming to an end, a journey that started with a simple act of kindness to help a young developer from Delhi chase his dreams,” their message on the website read.
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What is the story behind the domain?
The siblings had purchased the domain from its previous owner who was a Delhi-based app developer. The developer had registered it last year at a time when the $8.5 billion or ₹70,352 crore Reliance Jio and Disney Hotstar merger was just a speculation.
The new merged entity is to become one of India’s largest media and entertainment companies with an expected revenue of around ₹26,000 crore.
After the merger was formally announced, the developer asked Reliance for the funding of his higher studies at Cambridge University in exchange for the domain.
However, Reliance refused and thus, the developer sold it to the siblings.
The siblings announced that the Reliance IP legal team approached them, and that they will be transferring the domain to them without any payments or deals as rumored online.
“There is no pressure from anyone, and there is no deal of any kind,” they said. “This is purely a transfer of the domain from our side because we believe it could be useful for them. Whether or not they choose to use it is up to them.”
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They added that the transfer will happen only after the agreement is signed for which they have been asked to visit Mumbai. “We are waiting for the draft,” they said.
Why did the siblings transfer the domain to Reliance free of cost?
The siblings claim to have done the transfer as an act of “Seva” to help fund the developer’s education and added that “our mission here may be ending, but our larger journey of Seva continues.”
They went on to endorse their NGO platform and thanked “everyone who has been a part of this journey.”
All of this comes after their previous message on the website which said that the domain wasn’t for sale despite them getting many offers.
However, they made an open offer to Reliance alone. “With all the discussions happening, we now think it might be best for Team Reliance to have this domain, if they want it,” they wrote. “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. We made this decision on our own, without any pressure from friends, family, or anyone else.”
They went on to say that they “never expected this attention and never meant to cause any controversy” amid “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.”
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