iWorld
Shobit Arora rejoins Network 18
MUMBAI: A group sales head at CNBC TV18, CNN18 and CNBC Awaaz for the northern region for nearly two years in 2019. Now Shobit Arora has come back to his alma mater as national head connected TV for the same three channels -building them across streaming devices and platforms.
Shobit who believes heavily in education earned his BA and MA in economics from Guru Nanak Dev university, and followed those up with his MBA in finance from IIPM. He then joined Bennett Coleman & Co where he worked for nine years rising up to become manager.
What followed was his transition to TV with stints BTVi as senior manager north sales (2017-2019, CNBC TV18 (2019-Dec 2020) and India Today (AGM- connected TV, April 2022-August 2023.
Shobit then made a surprising move by joining Oracle as a senior enterprise account manager for a short period of six months. After that, he rejoined India Today as DGM -connected TV (February 2024-December 2024), following which he got the call from Network18 to head the national connected TV business for the three channels.
Shobit likes to keep himself updated on new tech and has done a smorgasbord of courses: Linkedin Learning’s CMO Foundations Measuring Marketing Effectiveness RoI, NIIT’s Google Adwords Certification, Digital marketing workshops and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure 2023 AI certified Foundations Associate course.
All these should come handy as he takes the three channels he has charge of into new frontiers.
iWorld
X launches XChat messaging app on iOS with calls and encryption
Standalone app marks shift from “everything app” vision, adds E2E messaging.
MUMBAI: From one big app to many small chats, X seems to be splitting its ambitions. X has rolled out its standalone messaging app, XChat, to iOS users, opening up a new front in its evolving product strategy. The app allows users to connect with existing X contacts through private and group messages, file sharing, as well as audio and video calls. The launch follows a limited beta phase, where the platform tested the product with a smaller user base to refine the experience. Now available publicly, XChat marks a notable pivot from earlier ambitions championed by Elon Musk to turn X into a single “everything app” combining messaging, payments, commerce and more.
Instead, the company under xAI ownership and backed by SpaceX appears to be building a suite of standalone applications, each targeting specific use cases while expanding its broader ecosystem.
At launch, XChat includes end-to-end encrypted messaging, PIN-based access, disappearing messages, and features such as message editing, deletion for all participants, and screenshot blocking. The company has also said the app is free from advertisements and tracking mechanisms, positioning it as a privacy-first alternative in a crowded messaging space.
However, security claims around the platform are likely to face scrutiny. Earlier iterations of XChat drew criticism from experts who argued it fell short of established encrypted platforms like Signal. With the wider rollout, the app is expected to undergo fresh evaluation to assess whether those concerns have been addressed.
Beyond messaging, XChat will also house X’s Communities feature, which is being discontinued on the main platform due to low usage and spam concerns. Migrating these users could provide an early boost to adoption, effectively turning XChat into both a communication and community hub.
The move underscores a broader recalibration at X less about cramming everything into one app, and more about spreading bets across multiple touchpoints, one message at a time.
