iWorld
Facebook activates Safety Check option after Paris attack
MUMBAI: The world was struck with horror as Paris bled under the terror attacks that paralysed the city early morning on November 14.
As news of the multiple attacks in six key places in the city spread through France and the world, family and friends of those present in the city couldn’t help but panic about the wellbeing of their loved ones. The attacks left 127 dead and over 200 injured including 99 that have been critically injured (as per the available statistics at the time of filing of this report)
The situation further intensified as President Holland declared a state of emergency in France, closing its borders. Like every major disaster, be it natural or manmade, chaos ensued.
Facebook did its part in abating some of the confusion with its Safety Check option.
Thousands of users took to the application to send their safety message out to the world by checking ‘Safe Now’ on their profile pages.
As per the data Facebook shared with Indiantelevision.com, 4.1 million Facebook users marked themselves safe using the tool, which notified 360 million users of their friends’ safety since the service was activated.
“We’ve activated Safety Check, so if you’re in Paris you can mark yourself safe or check on your friends and family,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg later posted on the social media earlier on 14 November, while condemning the act of violence in Paris.
According to Facebook spokesperson, 78 million people have had over 183 million Facebook interactions related to the attacks so far.
Safety Check isn’t a new offering from the tech giant. It was launched in 2011 after the devastating Tsunami had hit Japan and surrounding areas. The option was also widely used after the earthquake in Nepal earlier this year.
Interestingly this is the first time Facebook has activated the service for anything other than natural disaster.
Explaining the reasoning behind the move, Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook, “Many people have rightfully asked why we turned on Safety Check for Paris but not for bombings in Beirut and other places. Until yesterday, our policy was only to activate Safety Check for natural disasters. We just changed this and now plan to activate Safety Check for more human disasters going forward as well.”
Facebook is also allowing users to change their profile pictures in the blue, white and red shades of the French national flag in support of France and the people of Paris.
iWorld
Micro-dramas rewrite India’s digital storytelling rules
New format delivers 800 hours of content and Rs 650 crore in revenue in 2025 alone.
MUMBAI: Micro-dramas just turned two-minute attention spans into a full-blown industry because when your story has to hook someone before they swipe away, every second counts like a cliffhanger.
At the FICCI-EY Media & Entertainment Industry Report launch, a high-powered panel explored how micro-dramas are reshaping content creation, discovery and monetisation in India’s digital ecosystem. Moderated by film critic Stutee Ghosh, the session featured Karan Bedi (Director & Head, Amazon MX Player), Kunj Sanghvi (SVP – Content, Kuku TV), Neha Markanda (chief business officer, Sharechat and Moj), Saameer Mody (Founder & MD, Pocket Films & Pocket TV) and Shweta Bajpai (Group Director – Finserv, Media, Travel and Services, Meta India).
The discussion opened with a clear question: what exactly is a micro-drama? Kunj Sanghvi offered the most precise definition, positioning it as content that sits comfortably between long-form films and short-form Reels. “It is feature-length stories 90 to 100 minutes in total told in 45 to 50 episodes of roughly two minutes each,” he explained. The real differentiator, he added, lies in algorithmic distribution on social feeds. A strong cliffhanger at the end of each snippet creates an “uncontrollable urge” to download the app and continue, turning passive scrolling into active consumption.
Shweta Bajpai brought a platform perspective, noting that micro-drama perfectly combines three major trends that have been building for the past four to five years, short-form video, creator-led storytelling, and episodic entertainment. She pointed out that 71 per cent of consumers discovered the category only in the last six months, with a staggering 89 per cent stumbling upon it organically while browsing Reels or Facebook feeds. Once hooked, they click the call-to-action and start bingeing.
One of the most striking revelations was the solitary nature of consumption. According to Meta’s report with Ormax Media, 90 per cent of micro-drama viewing happens alone. This private, personal-screen habit gives creators room to experiment with edgier, more intimate or bold narratives that might not work in a shared family viewing environment.
The panel addressed the frequent criticism that micro-dramas are merely dopamine hits rather than proper storytelling. Saameer Mody countered that telling a compelling story in a very short time is actually harder than in long-form. “Short filmmakers have always said it’s tougher to deliver your message in limited time,” he noted, comparing it to advertising, which has told complete stories in under 30 seconds for decades. “Two minutes is luxury,” he quipped.
Neha Markanda observed that the format’s rapid acceleration has surprised even insiders. From 150 million daily views shortly after launch to 400 million today, with average time spent nearing 50 minutes per day, the growth has been “beyond phenomenal.” She estimated that 10–15 per cent of India’s internet population is already consuming micro-dramas across platforms, leaving massive headroom for expansion. EY predictions suggest the category could grow 3x in three years, but some panellists believe it could be even faster.
Kunj Sanghvi highlighted that genres in micro-dramas evolve and exhaust quickly. “Genres get exhausted really fast,” he said. “After the 50th micro-drama of the same type, the audience already knows what’s coming.” This forces constant innovation and micro-segmentation. Platforms are already serving very specific audiences, IAS aspirants, middle-aged romance seekers, or those who enjoy moral conflicts between doctors and billionaires proving the format’s ability to cater to niche emotional triggers.
Regionalisation is seen as inevitable. While Hindi currently dominates, Tamil and Telugu are growing fast, and vernacular supply is expected to catch up with demand. The cost of creation, already low, is falling further with AI tools, raising the prospect of hundreds of new titles every month in the near future.
Karan Bedi explained MX Player’s decision to keep the format entirely free, “We think there is potentially 800 million screens in India. If we’re at 10–15 per cent penetration today, we have 8x to go.” By removing the paywall, the platform aims to learn rapidly at scale and capture the massive untapped audience.
The panel agreed that micro-drama is not replacing traditional long-form storytelling but adding a new, highly addictive layer tailored to fragmented attention spans and mobile-first habits. As Shweta Bajpai put it, today’s audience is “entertainment hungry, but has less time to spare” and wants content that feels both personal and aspirational.
In a world where everyone is racing against the next swipe, micro-dramas have mastered the art of the perfect hook proving that the smallest screen can still deliver the biggest emotional punch, two minutes at a time. With India still at relatively low penetration compared to China’s 80 per cent, the format is poised for explosive growth, and the only question left is how quickly creators and platforms can keep feeding the insatiable appetite for the next cliffhanger.
