e-commerce
Competition Commission clears Alphabet’s investment in Flipkart
MUMBAI: Indian ecommerce giant Flipkart -owned by US retail major Walmart – has a new minority shareholder. India’s monopolies and fair trade watchdog, the Competition Commission of India, on 26 November, gave the green signal to Alphabet’s subsidiary Shoreline International Holdings LLC to acquire a stake in it. Shoreline International Holdings is a wholly-owned offshoot of Alphabet, Google’s parent company. It is a holding firm and does not own or operate any Google products or services.
“The proposed transaction comprises an investment through subscription of shares of Flipkart Pvt Ltd (Target) by Shoreline International Holdings LLC (acquirer) and an arrangement between an affiliate of the acquirer and the target’s subsidiary for the provision of certain services,” the regulator said in a release.
Flipkart mainly offers wholesale cash and carry operations and runs marketplace-based e-commerce platforms to facilitate trade between customers and sellers in India.
In 2023, Flipkart had started a funding round of close to a billion Us dollars which included $350 million from Google and around $600 million from Walmart. The agreement with Google also included, according to reports, access to its cloud services which would allow it expand its digtal infrastructure further. With that its valuation had risen to $36 billion and it said it would use the money to expand into quick commerce and other fintech ventures.
85 per cent owned by Walmart, Flipkart will probably move towards an IPO in the not-too-distant future, as it is something which the Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal-founded firm has been thinking about for sometime.
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.
