iWorld
ZEE5 associates with gift technology stalwart Qwikcilver
MUMBAI: ZEE5, India’s fastest growing OTT platform ties up withQwikcilver,a global leader in end-to-end gifting & stored-value solutions.ZEE5 e-gift cards will soon be available across major marketplaces & ecommerce destinations such as Amazon, Snapdeal, Woohoo, PayTM among others, as a gifting option. It enablesthe receiver access to the unlimited content choices on the platform for a specific period.
Manish Aggarwal, Business Head, ZEE5 Indiasaid,“Gifting is inherited in Indian culture. We choose our gifts keeping usability, likes and preferences in mind. Through this association with Qwikcilver, ZEE5 will be available as a gift card and consumers can enjoy their daily dose of entertainment and it also allows us to offer audiences the ease of choice, access and convenience. Our growth in the past year has been spurred, to a great deal, by key partnerships across the ecosystem and with Qwikcilver, we hope to continue this journey.”
T P Pratap, Co-Founder &Director, Qwikcilversaid,“We are thrilled to be associated with ZEE5 – India’s fastest growing OTT brand.It has been our constant endeavor to bring on board, strategic partners for the long term, that help to scale the business& strengthen our customer’s faith in us.For a fast-growing brand likeQwikcilver that has pioneered & established leadership across the Gift Card category, this collaboration with ZEE5 will anchor as a first of a kind partnership.”
With over 3500 films, 500+ TV shows, 4000+ music videos, 35+ theatre plays and 90+ LIVE TV Channels across 12 languages, ZEE5 truly presents a blend of unrivalled content offering for its viewers across the nation and worldwide. With ZEE5, the global content of Zindagi as a brand, which was widely appreciated across the country, has also been brought back for its loyal viewers.
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.
