iWorld
ZEE5 now available on Jio KaiOS platform
MUMBAI: ZEE5, India’s fastest growing OTT platform, announced an association with Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., India’s leading digital services provider. As part of the partnership, a bespoke version of the ZEE5 app will now be available on Jio KaiOS feature phones.The partnership aims to bring on board the 40mn+ users of Jio Feature phones in the country today, who are seeking engaging entertainment options in addition to the features that the phone inherently offers.
Tarun Katial, CEO, ZEE5 India says, “We, at ZEE5, are focussed on bridging the digital entertainment dividebetween metros, semi-urban and rural markets. And, in this, we believe Jio is our perfect partner. With the rich repertoire of regionally relevant stories in the form of web shows, movies, docu-dramas, we are perfectly poised to be the content partner to Jio that has a robust presence in these markets.Through our library that houses music, TV shows, news and such, the audience will now have access to content on-the-go and at their convenience. ZEE5 is constantly looking at building value for its subscribers and advertisers alike, and with this partnership we are confident of filling a vacuum for brands who are seeking inroads into the regional audience’s mindspace.”
Through this alliance, Jio KaiOSsubscribers will have access to the substantial VOD (Video On Demand) offering on the ZEE5 platform:
• Unrestricted content offering across popular Hindi and regional channels – ZEE TV, & TV, ZEE Anmol, Zing, ZEE Marathi, ZEE Tamil, ZEE Bangla, ZEE Yuva, Sarthak TV, ZEE Kannada, ZEE Cinema, ZEE Action, & Pictures, ZEE Café, &flix, ZEE ETC and so on
• An exhaustive collection of music across genres such as film music from Hindi and regional movies, Indi-pop, categorised by mood, event telecasts and so on
• Popular movies across languages such as Hindi, Bhojpuri, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam
Spurred by smart devices and wider availability of high-speed data services, the viewers will have access to the vast regional content library that ZEE5 has curated over the past year.
As of December 2018, ZEE5 has 56.3 mn monthly active users, who spend an average of 31 minutes on the platform per day. ZEE5 has consistently been amongst the top-5 free and grossing entertainment apps in India as per the Google Play store rankings. With this foray into KaiOS via Jio, ZEE5 is confident about charting a similar story.
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.
