iWorld
Pocket FM’s India arm registers 647 per cent revenue growth in FY 2023
Mumbai: In its RoC (Registrar of Companies) filing with the Ministry of Company Affairs, audio series platform Pocket FM has disclosed the financial performance of its India subsidiary for FY2023. The company reported a 647 per cent surge in revenue, reaching Rs.131 crores. It has reduced its loss (before tax) by 56 per cent, amounting to Rs 75.7 crores.
Pocket FM has experienced a 417 per cent increase in microtransaction revenue (content monetisation) to Rs. 82.8 crores. The advertising revenue soared by 1120 per cent to Rs.12.17 crores, with the company at a pilot stage for its brand and ad solutions streams.
Pocket FM has been prudent with expense management in FY23, with overall expenses growing by 9.32 per cent to Rs.206.78 crores. The advertising and marketing expenses are brought down by 45 per cent to Rs.70.57 crores. However, the company’s commitment to expanding its content library is evident with its content expenses more than doubled to Rs.21.29 crores in FY23.
Employee spending has witnessed an increase from Rs 30.7 crores in 2022 to Rs 73.3 crores in 2023 to align with the company’s growth strategy.
Commenting on its FY23 financial disclosures, Pocket FM chief finance officer Anurag Sharma said, “As Pocket FM charts its path in FY2023, our focus is clear: strategic growth, global expansion, and financial resilience. Our commitment to staying financially healthy ensures a strong foundation for scaling up not just in India but also globally. With continuous investments into content and the writers’ community, we look forward to elevating entertainment not just limited to listening experiences but replicating the experience across other formats through IP stronghold.”
The company’s expense-to-revenue ratio has got better to 1.58 in FY23 from 10.78 in FY22.
iWorld
Meta plans 8,000 layoffs in new AI-led restructuring wave
First phase from May 20 may cut 10 per cent workforce amid AI pivot.
MUMBAI: At Meta, the future may be artificial but the cuts are very real. The social media giant is reportedly preparing a fresh round of layoffs, with an initial wave expected to impact around 8,000 employees as it doubles down on its artificial intelligence ambitions. According to a Reuters report, the first phase of job cuts is slated to begin on May 20, targeting roughly 10 per cent of Meta’s global workforce. With nearly 79,000 employees on its rolls as of December 31, the move marks one of the company’s most significant workforce reductions in recent years.
And this may only be the beginning. Sources indicate that additional layoffs are being planned for the second half of the year, although the scale and timing remain fluid, likely to be shaped by how Meta’s AI capabilities evolve in the coming months. Earlier reports had suggested that total cuts in 2026 could reach 20 per cent or more of its workforce.
The restructuring comes as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg continues to steer the company towards an AI-first operating model, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to the transition. Internally, this shift is already visible: teams within Reality Labs have been reorganised, engineers have been moved into a newly formed Applied AI unit, and a Meta Small Business division has been created to align with broader structural changes.
The trend is hardly isolated. Across the tech sector, companies are trimming headcount while investing aggressively in automation. Amazon, for instance, has reportedly cut around 30,000 corporate roles nearly 10 per cent of its white-collar workforce citing efficiency gains driven by AI. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows over 73,000 tech employees have already lost jobs this year, compared with 153,000 in all of 2024.
For Meta, the move echoes its earlier “year of efficiency” in 2022–23, when about 21,000 roles were eliminated amid slowing growth and market pressures. This time, however, the backdrop is different. The company is financially stronger, generating over $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit last year, with shares up 3.68 per cent year-to-date though still below last summer’s peak.
That contrast underlines the shift underway. These layoffs are less about survival and more about reinvention. As Meta restructures itself around AI from autonomous coding agents to advanced machine learning systems, the question is no longer whether the company will change, but how many roles will be left unchanged when it does.
