iWorld
Young Indians under 35 years of age drive OTT consumption
MUMBAI: Although users of all age groups are consuming over-the-top (OTT) platforms, young Indians under 35 years of age accounted for 89 per cent of OTT platform users. The age groups of 16-24 and 25-35 contributed equally to the overall market, Counterpoint Research’s India OTT Video Content Market Consumer Survey revealed. Moreover, male users account for 79 per cent of the total users.
The report also revealed that the top five metros accounted for 55 per cent of OTT video platform users, while tier I cities accounted for another 36 per cent of users. In addition to that, Hotstar leads the Indian OTT video content market, followed by Amazon’s Prime Video, SonyLIV, Netflix, Voot, Zee5, ALTBalaji, and Eros Now in terms of the percentage of respondents subscribed to each platform.
While subscription-based market (SVOD) continues to grow significantly, the market remains highly focused on the ad-based model (AVOD), where advertisements drive revenues. Notably, Eros Now users were the most engaged users, with 68 per cent indicating that they watched content on the platform daily. As per the report, 9 per cent of Eros Now’s users watch content on the platform for more than 21 hours a week.
As per the survey, salaried employees was the largest consumer group of OTT users, followed by students, business owners, housewives, and others in terms of overall demographics. While more than one-third of the respondents indicated that they were inclined to use free services, another third indicated that they were paying for the subscription. Among the remaining respondents, some of them were either on trial period or indicated that their friend or family paid the subscription cost.
In line with popular belief, smartphone has emerged as the most popular device for OTT video content consumption and Xiaomi has acquired the place of most popular smartphone brand. Reliance Jio has taken the place of the most popular network among OTT users, followed by Airtel and Vodafone-Idea.
Although regional languages are gradually becoming very important, most preferred languages for video content are Hindi and English till now. However, Telugu was found to be most popular among regional ones, followed by Punjabi, Bengali, Marathi and Tamil.
The market leader Hotstar has the highest penetration of non-paying user and 56 per cent of Hotstar users hail from metro cities. On the other hand, international giants Netflix and Amazon Prime Video have high popularity in metros as top five metros account for more than 65 per cent users on these platforms.
Among others, 40 per cent of SonyLIV users hail from these cities and Voot has the greatest reach among female users. ALTBalaji scored the highest among 25-35 age group users, who account for 59 per cent of its users while Eros Now has the largest share of its users in the 25-39 age group in tier II/III cities.
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.
