iWorld
‘Squid Game’ reaches 111 million fans on Netflix
Mumbai: Netflix has announced that the Korean drama “Squid Game” has reached 111 million fans, making the series the OTT platform’s biggest launch ever. It is also the first series to be watched across 100 million accounts.
The show began streaming on 17 September and is on Netflix’s top ten lists in countries around the world. At the time of filing this report, it is trending at the top spot in India.
The series creator and director Hwang Dong-hyuk first began writing the script in 2008 and finished it in 2009. The show was initially planned to be a feature film. However, it was only 10 years after penning the idea that Netflix picked up the show and actually began working on it.
“Squid Game” features actors Lee Jung-Jae, Park Hae Soo, HoYeon Jung, Wi Ha-joon, and Lee Byung-hun among others. The plot revolves around 456 contestants who are deeply in debt who are enticed into a dangerous game and made to play Korean children’s games where the winner will take away 45.6 billion South Korean won.
In the past, Netflix has seen a lot of success with the Spanish series “Money Heist” and the German series “Dark” which grabbed the attention of viewers across the world.
Netflix reported having 209 million paid subscribers globally in their Q2 2021 earnings release. In September, Netflix released a chart of its most-watched shows that feature “Bridgerton” at the top with 82 million subscribers tuning in for at least two minutes in the first 28 days.
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.
