iWorld
Airtel launches CPaaS solution ‘Airtel IQ Video’ to democratise video streaming
Mumbai: Communication solutions provider Bharti Airtel (Airtel) on Tuesday announced the launch of its video platform as a service (CPaaS) ‘Airtel IQ Video’ that will allow businesses to build world-class video streaming products for large and small screens with minimal investment in infrastructure and technology. The solution has been developed by Airtel’s in-house engineering teams.
Airtel IQ Video is an end-to-end managed solution that brings convenience along with cost benefits. It encompasses a variety of features ranging from app development, content hosting, curation, and lifecycle management to search and discovery, analytics, and monetisation models (advertising, subscriptions, transactions).
“Airtel IQ Video brings an easy-to-use platform that can enable anyone to quickly build and scale their business in video streaming. This will encourage enterprises to focus on content while Airtel IQ Video anchors the end-to-end technology ensuring a great viewing experience for customers,” stated Bharti Airtel – chief product officer Adarsh Nair. “With Airtel IQ Video, we expect to see more content startups and traditional content companies coming online and directly engaging with consumers digitally.”
Airtel IQ Video is a cloud-based omni-channel communications platform that enables brands to deepen engagement with customers through timely and secure communication. It eliminates the need for multiple communication platforms for different channels while allowing businesses to embed communication services such as voice, SMS, IVR, and video in their applications and digital properties across desktop and mobile, all through a unified platform, said the statement.
According to RBSA Advisors, India’s video OTT market is expected to touch $12.5 billion by 2030 from the current $1.5 billion. The report also highlighted that the next wave of growth in the OTT landscape will come from tier 2, 3 and 4 cities and regional languages at the centre of this growth story. Keeping these changing trends in sight, existing regional OTTs are looking to scale their technology platforms to accommodate the rising number of users. Traditional content providers such as regional TV broadcasters are looking to digitise their content libraries through OTT applications.
During the beta phase, Airtel IQ Video has also been deployed by Eros Now and CG Telecom of Nepal. Airtel is expecting to onboard 50+ brands on the platform in the coming year as interest from the market has been high.
“We have cherished our partnership with Airtel over the years and are now excited about our technology collaboration. Their robust infrastructure and extensive network coverage have been helping us deliver blockbuster content seamlessly to the end consumers,” shared Eros Now- CEO Ali Hussein. “Airtel’s latest ‘Airtel IQ Video’ platform is an innovative offering that is built to scale and can assist Eros Now in reinforcing its value proposition to the rapidly expanding video subscriber base.”
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.
