iWorld
ZEE5 to test cheaper mobile-only plans, eyes 80 million MAUs by March
MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd’s video streaming service ZEE5 has made quite a splash since its entry in India’s competitive OTT landscape.
In just 15 months of launch, the Tarun Katial-led streamer has 61.5 million monthly active users (MAUs), clocking 31 minutes of average time spent per day.
In a bid to make even greater inroads into the Indian market, ZEE5 will now test cheaper mobile-only plans, reported news agency PTI.
"We are also planning to test mobile-only pack for consumers who want to watch content on-the-go at cheap prices and with limited ads with an option to choose the ad one wants to watch in exchange of a lower subscription rate," said Katial.
Innovative pricing packs blended with a unique ad proposal could also be in the offing. This, Katial believes, will further boost the revenue generation efforts of the company.
Having registered 70 million app downloads till March 2019, the platform now hopes to achieve the 80 million MAU mark by March 2020.
ZEE5’s success has seen it attract advertisers across the board, with the prowess of its regional content paying rich dividends.
Katial is confident that ad revenue of the platform will witness strong growth in the near future with content, technology and partnerships driving ZEE5’s appeal.
"From a technology standpoint, we have partnered with over 30 companies world over with strong expertise in the OTT space," he said.
Apart from collaborating with telcos, the platform has also struck deals with smart TV manufacturers and connected device makers like Amazon Fire Stick.
ZEE5 has partnerships with Airtel, Vodafone Idea, and Reliance Jio, Katial added, pointing out that these are helping it reach consumers in small towns.
Partnerships of this nature not just give ZEE5 access to consumers in smaller markets but also help in joint marketing campaigns.
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.
