e-commerce
Alibaba enters Indian internet space with investment in ticketing
NEW DELHI: The Chinese infotainment giant Alibaba Group’s entertainment arm Alibaba Pictures Group Limited has invested Rs 1.2 billion to acquire a majority stake in Chennai-based online ticketing platform TicketNew.
This will enable TicketNew to strengthen its position and expand its services across India.
This is Alibaba Pictures’s first acquisition outside China in internet ticketing industry.
TicketNews presently has around 3,000 screens in its network across India with an average ticket booking history of 100.000 per day, it is learnt.
With the partnership in place, the company hopes to take its network to cover 300,000 in the next eight months, the source added.
TicketNew Founder Ramkumar Nammalvar while TicketNew has a strong base in the South, especially in the neighbourhood theatres in tier-II and tier-III cities, it does not have much presence beyond that.
Nammalvar said the company wanted to reach wider audience and expand to other cities, which requires substantial financial and technological resources.
e-commerce
Instamart and Duolingo launch street spell check campaign for Instaprint
Duo the owl fixes signboard typos across cities to showcase instant printing.
MUMBAI: If spelling mistakes had a sworn enemy, it might just be a bright green owl with a printer. Instamart has teamed up with language learning platform Duolingo for a quirky nationwide campaign that turns everyday spelling errors into a public spectacle while promoting its instant printing service, InstaPrint. The playful activation takes aim at the many misspelled shop boards and public signs scattered across Indian streets. From “saloons” that promise haircuts rather than drinks to menus and posters peppered with punctuation mishaps, the campaign sends Duolingo’s mascot Duo on a mission to restore linguistic order.
Armed with Instamart’s instant printing feature, Duo prints corrected versions of the mistakes on the spot and pastes them over the originals. The result is a series of humorous street interventions that have quickly begun circulating on social media.
Photos and videos of the grammar correcting owl have been widely shared online, with amused users reacting to the unexpected spell check patrol. One user joked, “Ab ayega na maza bhidu,” capturing the internet’s delight at the unusual campaign.
Behind the humour lies a practical message. The activation is designed to showcase the capabilities of Instaprint, Instamart’s printing service that allows users to print documents and posters almost instantly.
The company says the feature is meant for everyday needs such as printing resumes, visa documents or last minute posters without the usual scramble to locate a print shop.
Instamart introduced Instaprint in 2025 across select metropolitan cities including Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi. The service allows users to order printed materials directly through the platform, extending the quick commerce model beyond groceries and household essentials.
By combining Duolingo’s famously persistent owl with India’s street level spelling quirks, the campaign taps into the internet’s long running fascination with grammar mistakes while demonstrating a real world use case for instant printing.
After all, in a world full of typos, sometimes what you really need is a quick printer and a very determined language teacher.
