e-commerce
Amazon reportedly in talks to buy Jabong in India
MUMBAI: With the rivalry rising in the e-commerce space, it looks like the Indian arm of Amazon is ready to heat it up a notch. The e-tailer is reportedly in talks with Indian fashion site Jabong to acquire it.
According to a report in a leading daily, the talks are at a preliminary stage and despite being valued at around $500 million in a recent regulatory filing, Jabong is holding out for $700 million as it reports to have multiple suitors.
Denying commenting on the speculations, Amazon said, “We do not comment on anything we may or may not do in the future.”
The report quoted a person working with the US e-tailer as saying that Jabong was ideal for acquisition since Flipkart had acquired Myntra in May for around $330 million.
Flipkart-Myntra reportedly has 50 per cent of India’s online fashion retail market share with Jabong at 25 per cent.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bozos had promised to invest $2 billion in its India operations with a big chunk of it going towards acquisitions.
Fashion e-tailer Jabong is part of a global group after its investors German venture capital group Rocket Internet and with Swedish investor Kinnevik announcing a merger of five emerging market fashion start-ups. The merged entity is called Global Fashion Group (GFG) and worth about worth 2.7 billion euros or around Rs 21,000 crore.
The company’s CEO Arun Chandra Mohan has also been pretty optimistic about the company’s outlook and had said in a recent interview to the paper said, “I believe the valuation of my company is going to be significant. We are going to be a billion dollar business.”
Amazon India started offering fashion products on its marketplace in May, and an acquisition offers a swift route to scaling up. In the US, Amazon chose a similar strategy to improve its fashion credentials by buying Zappos in 2009.
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.
