iWorld
ZEE5 Global makes key appointments in product and tech team
MUMBAI :As it looks to aggressively scale up operations across international markets, ZEE5 Global has made some key appointments strengthening its Product and Tech team. Rahul Vaz has been appointed to head up the Product team. Rahul most recently served as Sr. Product Director –Vootand will be based out of the ZEE5 Global office in Mumbai.
Rahul comes with an extensive experience of over 18 years. Through stints at People Interactive, Hungama Digital and most recently with Viacom’s Voot, he has worked with OTT and Video products from the ground up and has a deep understanding of the consumer tech segment.
In his role at ZEE5 Global, Rahul will be responsible fordefining and driving what the user experience of ZEE5 Global should be in global markets and grow out the product division and ensure a seamless entertainment experience on the platform for ZEE5’s global audiences.In addition to this he will build efficiencies towards a stronger user interface in terms of design, communication and more, while also looking for constant improvements on the web and app.
Also joining the team asHead of Technology is Vinay Patodia who comes with a strong background of 18+ years in driving technology strategy and operations across companies like Hungama Digital, Onmobile, Torchfi and others. He will lead the engineering team and be responsible for building out an innovative,scalable and customer-centric platform.
“Both Rahul and Vinay come in at a time when we are significantly ramping up across global marketsand ensuring that we have the most robust and scalable product and technology is key to this. Both bring in strong domain expertise and experience and will play a key role as we grow and consolidate our leadership position, ” ZEE5 Global chief business officer Archana Anand commented.
iWorld
WhatsApp may soon let users to pick who sees their status updates
The messaging giant is borrowing a page from Instagram’s playbook as it pushes to give users finer control over their social circles.
CALIFORNIA: WhatsApp is quietly working on a feature that could make its Status function considerably smarter and considerably more private.
According to reports from beta tracking platforms, the app is testing a tool called Status lists, which would allow users to create named groups such as close friends, family and colleagues, and control precisely which group sees each update. It is a meaningful step up from the platform’s current blunt instruments, which offer only three options: share with all contacts, exclude specific people, or manually select individuals each time.
The new feature draws an obvious comparison with Instagram’s Close Friends function, and the resemblance is unlikely to be accidental. Both platforms sit within Meta’s family, and the company has been nudging them toward a common logic of audience segmentation for some time.
The move also fits neatly into WhatsApp’s broader privacy push. The platform has been rolling out enhanced chat protections and is exploring the introduction of usernames, which would allow users to connect without exchanging phone numbers. Status lists extend that philosophy from messaging into broadcasting.
Meanwhile, Status itself has been evolving well beyond its origins as a simple photo-and-text slideshow. The feature now supports music stickers, collages, longer videos and interactive elements, pushing it closer to the social-media-style story format pioneered by Snapchat and refined by Instagram. In that context, finer audience controls are not merely a privacy feature. They are a precondition for people sharing more.
The feature remains in development and has not been confirmed for release. WhatsApp routinely tests tools that are later modified or quietly shelved. But the direction of travel is clear: the app wants Status to be a destination, not an afterthought. Letting users decide exactly who is in the audience is how it gets there.
