iWorld
ALTBalaji partners with AMAZON PAY
MUMBAI: India’s leading homegrown OTT platform, ALTBalaji announces its association via Amazon Pay. Through this partnership, customers can now experience a one-click purchase using Amazon Pay and avail a flat 50% cashback up to Rs. 150/- on paying for their ALTBalaji subscription.
With over 40 Originals in its content offering, ALTBalaji has built a legacy of creating iconic shows, like ‘Apharan,’ ‘Kehne Ko Humsafar Hain,’ ‘Home,’ ‘Gandii Baat’, ‘The Test Case’, ‘Bose: Dead or Alive’ among others, which have been lauded by audiences. ‘Broken but Beautiful’ strikes the right chords with audiences for its soul-stirring music and coming of age concept. Gandii Baat franchise has created quite a stir with its unabashed and sultry narratives of relationships and human tendencies; whereas on the other hand shows like TGIDF and Bose Dead/Alive has garnered rave reviews across demographics and age groups. Along with showcasing progressive and path-breaking content, the platform is also associated with a very wide talent pool of top-notch actors, writers and directors, who are expanding the boundaries of entertainment as we have known it so far.
Amazon Pay is one of the most trusted and convenient payment experiences for customers, sellers and merchants across India. Using Amazon Pay, customers can safely go cashless and enjoy quick and easy checkouts, faster refunds coupled with a secure shopping experience.
“This partnership helps us cater to audiences who prefer the Amazon ecosystem and payment options which is considered as the most trusted gateways for digital audiences across the country. Through this partnership, ALTBalaji’s library of homegrown, original premium content will now be even more accessible to a wider and newer set of audiences. The association will further help us extend our reach, while allowing Amazon Pay to offer their customers the entire catalogue of ALTBalaji’s premium content at an extremely competitive price point,” ALTBalaji CEO and Balaji Telefilms Group COO Nachiket Pantvaidya said.
“Integration of Amazon Pay on ALT Balaji gives consumers a safe and seamless payment choice. I am certain that this partnership will enhance the overall consumer experience on the platform and will encourage more subscribers to enjoy a friction free checkout,” Amazon Pay India Experience and Merchant Acceptance director Manesh Mahatme said.
With no additional authentications required, customers get the benefit of ‘one-click’ payments with a faster and vastly smoother check out process. Additionally, through Amazon Pay, customers can receive refunds faster than refunds to their bank accounts or credit cards and also view the details of balance transactions using an online statement.
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.
