e-commerce
Amazon.com to ‘double down’ on India ops; sales up 20% to $23 billion
MUMBAI: Amazon.com has reiterated that it will continue to double down on its India operations, which is its fastest growing geography. Amazon India remains the company’s fastest growing geography in sales, and India’s online store is the largest with over 25 million products.
In its financial results for its second quarter ended 30 June, 2015, Amazon.com’s net sales increased 20 per cent to $23.18 billion, compared with $19.34 billion in second quarter 2014. Excluding the $1.39 billion unfavourable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales increased 27 per cent compared to second quarter 2014. Operating income was $464 million in the second quarter, compared with operating loss of $15 million in second quarter 2014.
Net income was $92 million in the second quarter, or $0.19 per diluted share, compared with net loss of $126 million, or $0.27 per diluted share, in second quarter 2014.
Amazon’s operating cash flow increased 69 per cent to $8.98 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $5.33 billion for the trailing twelve months ended 30 June, 2014. Free cash flow increased to $4.37 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $1.04 billion for the trailing twelve months ended 30 June, 2014.
In India, Amazon launched the Global Selling Program for sellers, which enables them to access hundreds of millions of customers around the world. The Indian portal (Amazon.in) also introduced Sunday delivery across 100 cities in India for all FBA products at no additional cost. Moreover, Amazon Web Services (AWS) will also open a new region in India in 2016, which will enable customers to run workloads in India and serve Indian end-users with even better latency.
Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said, “The teams at Amazon have been working hard for customers. We unveiled Amazon Business, opened Amazon Mexico, launched Prime free same-day, rolled out our ninth Prime Now city, broke our Black Friday record with the first-ever Prime Day, received 11 Emmy nominations for Transparent, debuted six new kids pilots, brought Echo to general availability, introduced the Alexa Skills Kit and Alexa Voice Service, opened FBA Small and Light, continued to double down on our fastest growing geography — India, launched 350 significant AWS features and services so far this year (ahead of last year’s pace), introduced AWS Educate, and entered into agreements for new solar and wind farms — enough to exceed our 2016 goal of 40 per cent renewable energy.”
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.
