iWorld
Hooq adds exciting American series
MUMBAI: Hooq Asia’s first premium video-on-demand service, today announced the addition of new titles to its already extensive content catalogue especially for HOOQ’s Indian Audience. The new titles include some of the most popular and iconic TV shows of all times like Friends, The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men and Community amongst others.
Friends is an American television sitcom, created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which originally aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting ten seasons. The plot is centered around a set of six friends (Rachel Green, Ross Geller, Monica Geller, Joey Tribbiani, Chandler Bing and Phoebe Buffay), living off of one another in the heart of New York City.
The Big Bang Theory is one of the blockbuster shows that is primarily centered on five characters; the two roommates Leonard Hofstadter and Sheldon Cooper, both physicists who are surrounded by their geeky friends like aerospace engineer Howard Wolowitz and astrophysicist Raj Koothrappali. The showstopper being a character, their neighbour named Penny, a waitress and an aspiring actress. The plot is all about the geekiness and intellect of the four guys in contrast for comic effect with Penny’s social skills and common sense.
Community is an American television series that follows an ensemble cast of characters at a community college in the fictional town of Greendale, Colorado. It makes heavy use of meta-humor and pop culture references, often parodying film and television clichés and tropes.
Two and a Half Men is an American television sitcom that originally starred Charlie Sheen (the lead character later being replaced by Ashton Kutcher), Jon Cryer, and Angus T. Jones. The series is about the bumpy life of a hedonistic jingle writer, Charlie Harper; his uptight brother Alan; and Alan’s son Jake.
Commenting on the new additions,Hooq India managing director Salil Kapoor, said, “We always want to offer our customers the best and most exciting content from across the world and genres. Titles such as Friends, The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men have become iconic symbols which would work very well with the younger audiences. While HOOQ has one of the largest numbers of Hollywood titles and we are very excited to continuously add more content every month. With varied content on our platform, we aim to offer our audiences different flavors with an uninterrupted viewing experience. “
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.
