iWorld
Shemaroo to further focus on digital
MUMBAI: Content aggregation and distribution company Shemaroo Entertainment is going into an overdrive on the digital ecosystem. And it’s working for the firm which is quoting currently at Rs 382 (on Wednesday 03pm) on the Bombay stock exchange.
In an interview with CNBC TV18 on 20 December, Shemaroo’s wholetime director and CFO Hiren Gada said, “Digital is currently contributing 20 per cent of its top line revenues,” and growth has been at a healthy 50 per cent and more.
Gada further elaborated that around Rs 24 crore of its previous quarter’s revenues of around Rs 100 crore came courtesy digital or new media. He was specially buoyant about the 4.5 million views per day that its channels on YouTube were generating. Its mother channel Shemaroo had 2.28 million subscribers, Filmi Gaane had 1.8 million subscribers, Shemaroo Movies had 431,579 subscribers, and Shemaroo Kids had 281,000 subscribers cumulatively generating 1.42 billion views, 1.26 billion views, 142 million views and 186 million views, respectively.
“So, that kind of bears out as a strategy and conviction that the content strategy that we are following is getting tremendous traction with the audience,” he said.
Gada disclosed that telcos such as Vodafone, Idea and Airtel which it has partnered are already adding a “large component of revenues” to the company’s topline. “Then, there are all these (platforms) which are the next level of services, some of which are nascent or new like Reliance Jio or Hotstar or iTunes or any other international platforms. They hold tremendous potential.”
Gada added that the company’s content is unmissable. “.. given the kind of content we are sitting on, no one can run a meaningful Bollywood service without some content from Shemaroo. So, to that extent, we are either in talks or already deployed on many of the platforms that are already operating.”
Gada was hopeful of maintaining or hiking the revenue growth levels of 50 per cent that its new media focus has been generating over the next quarter as well. He also highlighted that margins for this segment were also higher than for the company as a whole as operating costs are being kept in check.
Shemaroo has also tied up with DTH operators such as Tata Sky, Dish TV and Airtel to run specialised value added services for them covering movies, comedy, religious songs.
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.
