iWorld
Netflix boasts eye-watering viewing figures
MUMBAI: Netflix, the streaming behemoth that enjoys reminding us all that it was first to the party, has revealed its subscribers collectively frittered away a staggering 94 billion hours watching content between July and December 2024. One can only imagine how many unwritten novels, unlearned languages, and unvisited gymnasiums those hours represent.
The company, displaying its customary selective transparency, proudly announced that the comedy caper Carry On topped its film charts with 137 million views. Curiously, Netflix neglected to convert this figure into actual viewing hours—perhaps calculating the true extent of global procrastination proved too depressing even for its data analysts.
Union (131 million views) and Rebel Ridge (129 million) followed closely behind, with Beverly Hills Cop (97 million) and Our Little Secret (81 million) rounding out the top five films that kept humanity from more productive pursuits.
On the series front, to absolutely nobody’s surprise, Squid Game continued its cultural stranglehold with its second season amassing 87 million views. The Perfect Couple (which, ironically, describes Netflix’s relationship with its audience’s leisure time) secured 75 million views, while Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story drew in 70 million viewers with its cheery subject matter.
Meanwhile, Emily in Paris continues to defy both critics and cultural cringe in its fourth season, with 58 million views suggesting that viewers simply cannot get enough of watching an implausibly employed American navigate the treacherous waters of croissants and couture. Nobody Wants This completed the top five with 57 million views—a title that clearly doesn’t apply to the show itself.
The streaming giant’s announcement serves as both a flex of its market dominance and a gentle reminder that we’re all spending far too much time staring at screens. Nonetheless, with numbers like these, Netflix executives are likely too busy counting their subscribers to worry about counting sheep at night.
(While like millions of others globally, we too are fans of Netflix and probably contributed a few thousand hours to Netflix’s 94 billion hours, we decided to write this piece in a fun, almost irreverent manner, just like the content Netflix offers. Cheers!)
iWorld
WhatsApp emerges as key commerce channel in India: Meta report
Whitepaper shows 77 per cent of purchases influenced by social media and shoppers spend 2.5 times more across channels
MUMBAI: If shopping once meant a stroll down the high street, today it begins with a scroll on a smartphone. India’s retail journey is being rewritten in real time, as consumers glide between Instagram Reels, WhatsApp chats and physical stores with barely a pause for thought. A new whitepaper by Meta in collaboration with the Retailers Association of India argues that this shift is not cosmetic but structural, powered by artificial intelligence, short form video, creators and conversational commerce.
The numbers underline the scale of the change.
Social media now influences 77 per cent of retail purchase decisions in India, with Meta’s platforms accounting for 96 per cent of social driven discovery. Discovery itself is increasingly passive and visual rather than deliberate and search led. As much as 97 per cent of consumers watch short form video daily, and 60 per cent of time spent on Facebook and Instagram is devoted to video content.
In other words, the shop window has moved to the feed.
The report highlights the growing dominance of the omnichannel shopper, a consumer who researches and buys fluidly across online and offline environments. More than 50 per cent of retail consumers research products online before purchasing in store. Equally, over 50 per cent browse in store before completing their purchase online.
This blended behaviour is lucrative. Shoppers who buy across channels spend 2.5 times more than single channel shoppers. When customers engage across multiple touchpoints, spending rises by as much as 73 per cent. For retailers, unified commerce is no longer a strategy slide. It is a revenue imperative.
Meta India director of E commerce and retail Meghna Apparao, urged brands to focus on three pillars: Reels and creators for authentic storytelling, omnichannel performance marketing to connect platforms, and WhatsApp as a personalised commerce channel. Hitesh Bhatt of RAI noted that the challenge is no longer adopting digital tools but integrating them to deliver measurable outcomes.
Artificial intelligence sits at the heart of this integration. Indian retailers using Meta’s omnichannel optimisation have recorded more than fourfold improvements in omnichannel return on ad spend. Businesses that integrated in store sales data through Meta’s Conversions API have reported Roas uplift ranging from 2 times to 5 times or more, alongside incremental sales growth of up to 9 times depending on category and market.
Integrated data strategies have also delivered revenue growth of up to 15 per cent, suggesting that when digital signals are tied to offline outcomes, marketing efficiency sharpens considerably.
Retailers are already putting this into practice. Reliance Digital has leaned into a Reels first strategy, working with regional creators to drive engagement and measurable business impact. Croma says Meta’s AI powered tools have enabled it to integrate offline data and activate performance marketing across touchpoints, strengthening both footfall and revenue across online and physical stores.
Trust is increasingly creator led. The report finds that 71 per cent of consumers make a purchase within a couple of days of seeing creator content on Meta’s technologies. Campaigns that leverage reels and creators have delivered 71 per cent higher brand intent lift and 19 per cent lower acquisition costs.
Micro and nano creators, in particular, are accelerating purchase decisions by embedding products into relatable, local narratives. Influence is no longer confined to celebrity endorsements. It is distributed, conversational and continuous.
If Instagram and Facebook drive discovery, WhatsApp is emerging as the conversion engine. According to the report, 72 per cent of product discovery now happens on WhatsApp. Retailers using business messaging and click to WhatsApp campaigns are seeing a 61 per cent average improvement in return on ad spend, a 62 per cent increase in leads and 22 per cent higher order values.
The implication is clear. Commerce is shifting from clicks to conversations. Discovery, purchase and post purchase support increasingly unfold within a single chat thread.
The whitepaper argues that omnichannel maturity will define competitiveness in Indian retail. Consumers no longer toggle between online and offline modes. They operate across both simultaneously, often within the same buying journey.
For brands, the task is no longer about being present on digital platforms. It is about stitching together discovery, data, conversation and store experience into a unified loop that can be measured in footfall, revenue and repeat purchase.
As India’s shoppers continue to scroll before they stroll, the retailers who align AI, creators and messaging into one seamless experience may find that the path to growth is less about adding new channels and more about connecting the ones they already have.
