iWorld
ZEE5 and Apigate announce a landmark partnership at Mobile World Congress
MUMBAI: Multi-lingual digital entertainment platform ZEE5 today announced a strategic partnership with Apigate to deliver the largest bouquet of content across languages and genres to audiences globally.
ZEE5, which is a part of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) – a global Media and Entertainment powerhouse – offers 100,000 hours of Indian Movies, TV Shows, News, Music, Videos and exclusive Originals, across 12 languages including Hindi, English, Bengali, Punjabi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Oriya, Bhojpuri and Gujarati. It also offers 60+ popular Live TV channels, including ZEE’s best loved channels.
This collaboration brings the plethora of ZEE5’s exciting content, including top TV Shows like Kumkum Bhagya, Jodhaa Akbar and Sembaruthi, blockbusters like Kedarnath, Veere Di Wedding and Mersal, and Originals like Abhay (Kunal Kemmu), Final Call (Arjun Rampal), Rangbaaz (Saqib Saleem) and Sharate Aaj (Parambrata Chattopadhyay) to audiences in 11 countries globally, and will leverage on Apigate’s next-generation API ecosystem to create innovative value propositions for customers.
Through this partnership, ZEE5 is leveraging not only Direct Carrier Billing which offers consumers a secure and convenient payment solution but also going beyond that to offer bundling, wallets and application to person messaging for all subscribers.
“As content creators, we’re creating rich and engaging content across multiple languages for our viewers across the globe. We have an ambitious growth agenda to expand ZEE5’s reach to a wider audience segment across global markets, and we’re very happy to announce our partnership with Apigate which will enable us to do that, said Amit Goenka, CEO, ZEE International and Z5 Global
“We’ve set out to establish ZEE5 as the clear go-to market destination for language content for South Asians and beyond, in the shortest possible time. We’re thrilled to partner with Apigate for this, given their ability to remove the complexities of multiple contracts which enables us to scale quickly. We look forward to jointly taking our fabulous bouquet of content to markets around the globe.” said Archana Anand, Chief Business Officer- ZEE5 Global
Zoran Vasiljev, Chief Executive Officer, Apigate said, “We are excited to partner with a well-known brand like ZEE5 as this is a testament to the relevance of Apigate’s platform in empowering digital transformation for businesses.”
Raja Mansukhani, Senior Vice President APAC, Apigate added, “Having built a world-class ecosystem of Mobile Network Operators, we are able to give ZEE5 access to customers all around the world by enabling expansion through one connection.”
Apigate’s global network reaches 3.5 billion people, comprising more than 110 mobile network operators across Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Latin America.
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.
