iWorld
Zee5 celebrates its fifth anniversary
Mumbai : Zee5 is celebrating five years of providing extraordinary streaming experiences and quality watch-time to billions of people worldwide. Zee5, which debuted in 2018, has been instrumental in transforming the OTT landscape in India and around the world through a strong digital-first strategy backed by a strong content funnel.
Sharing his views on the milestone, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel)digital businesses & platforms president Amit Goenka, said, “Zee5 was launched five years back with a vision to take Zee into its next phase of growth through leveraging the rapidly growing digital ecosystem to bring audiences extensive content choices and enhanced viewing experiences across screens. Today, I am happy to see Zee5 emerge as India’s largest homegrown multilingual platform and the leading global platform for South Asian content representing the rich linguistic and cultural diversity of the region to the world. The journey has been enthralling with many learnings as we strengthened our presence across international and local markets in the last few years, and our teams have a lot to be proud of. The appetite for digital content with advancements in emerging technologies has catapulted the demand for OTT content, paving the way for us to step into our next phase of growth with a robust content-led digital-first strategy.”
On the occasion of the fifth anniversary, Zee5 chief business officer Manish Kalra said, “As a leading player in India’s OTT industry, we at Zee5 have helped in expanding the contours of entertainment business over the last 5 years owing to the large appetite of Indians for quality content across languages. We, as a customer focused platform, believe in delivering high quality content for consumers, as well as engage with creators that could propel sector’s growth and address the demands of the culturally diverse and discerning audiences. With innovative storytelling, evolved character arcs, compelling narratives and content that transcends all barriers of languages and geographies we have grown remarkably over last 5 years across SVOD and AVOD. Our investments on content development increased significantly as well, as we strengthened our regional presence making inroads into the smaller pockets of India. Charting the next course for Zee5, we will focus on producing good-quality stories, enhanced viewing experiences, creative collaborations, and increased choices for our viewers.”
Zee5 Global chief business officer Archana Anand,, said, “There really couldn’t be a better way to celebrate our 5th anniversary than on the back of the global leadership we have achieved this past year. We are the No.1 South Asian platform across all international markets including key markets like US, UAE, Australia and Canada, and leading in others like UK. We’ve been trailblazers on multiple fronts in the US, shooting ahead to category leadership in the shortest time. And the biggest testimony of our success is the love we get from our diaspora audiences on the back of our content offering and tech innovations. South Asia is shining today in all spheres, and we look to be at the forefront of this conversation, setting the tone for even more disruptive growth in the next phase.”
Zee5’s 5X Thank You campaign began on 13 February and will run until 19 February in India to commemorate the five-year anniversary with consumers. During the campaign, audiences will have free access to 15+ premium SVOD titles in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Bangla, Punjabi, and Marathi. Exciting titles such as ‘Vikram Vedha’, ‘Aparajito’, ‘Uri: The Surgical Strike’, ‘Vikrant Rona’, ‘Bimbisara’, ‘Sohreyan Da Pind Aa Gaya’, ‘Prakashan Parakkatte’, and many more will be made free of charge, as will 30 new additions to Zee5’s World Hits library.
Zee5 viewers will also be able to watch Ankita Lokhande’s ‘The Last Coffee’, as well as a fun episodic release starring popular TV stars such as Shraddha Arya, Krishna Kaul, Rohit Suchanti, Shagun Pandey, Mugdha Chaphekar, and Ashi Singh.
This show, Zee5 5X Thank You Special, hosted by RJ Abhinav, will show fans their favourite stars in a never-before-seen avatar, reacting to some of their over-the-top scenes, engaging in fun team games and dares, sharing their journey and life stories with Zee5, and more. During the campaign, audiences can take advantage of a special discount on a mobile-only offer starting at Rs 399/-.
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.
