The Ken at ten

08 · Sources & method

Where every number comes from

Everything here is public. I collected it between 1 and 5 October 2026. Where a figure comes from a third party, a search snippet or my own arithmetic, the page says so. Where I couldn't verify something, I say that too.

MethodThe Ken's own pagesFilings & fundingReviewsRival reviewsPerplexity testMarket & competitorsBrand & socialGaps
8.1

Method

Reviews

All 288 written Google Play reviews of com.ken.core (Play reports 276) and 95 App Store reviews of id1282944688 across five storefronts, pulled through the stores' public endpoints. Plus 22 posts from Hacker News, Grapevine and Medium. I read each item and tagged it with a type, its aspects, sentiment per aspect, whether it praised the content while criticising the app, and any churn signal. Quotes were checked by script to be exact excerpts of 25 words or fewer.

AI answers

Perplexity, logged out, default model, 5 October 2026, one run per question. Cited URLs were taken from each answer's thread data, excluding images. Two questions returned no sources and are excluded. A single run is a snapshot. Repeated runs across engines are needed before treating any rate as stable.

Website and search

robots.txt, sitemaps and story pages fetched with curl. Search, pricing and paywall tested by hand in a desktop browser, logged out. Structured data checked in the raw HTML of story, newsletter and podcast pages, plus a 67-story sample from Feb to Oct 2026.

What I didn't do

I didn't log in, create accounts, join private groups, or open or download pirated copies or modified APKs. I recorded only that they exist. Reddit blocked automated collection, so Reddit opinions are not in the review set.

8.2

The Ken's own pages

  1. Seema Singh, "Showing up every day is the prize", 5 Oct 2026 — the-ken.com/ten-years/throwback/
  2. "The Ken turns 9", Oct 2025 — the-ken.com/blog/the-ken-turns-9/
  3. Praveen Gopal Krishnan, "What can you look forward to from The Ken in February?" — the-ken.com/blog/what-can-you-look-forward-to-from-the-ken-in-february/
  4. "Discovery was never broken. It was working as designed" — the-ken.com/blog/discovery-was-never-broken-it-was-working-as-designed/
  5. AI policy, Feb 2023, updated Aug 2025 — the-ken.com/blog/chatgpt-and-others-can-write-many-things-but-they-will-not-write-at-the-ken/
  6. "What product-market fit in subscription journalism looks like", Jan 2019 — the-ken.com/blog/what-product-market-fit-in-subscription-journalism-looks-like/
  7. "The Ken is profitable", 2018 — the-ken.com/blog/the-ken-is-profitable/
  8. Angel funding, 2017 — the-ken.com/blog/ken-announces-angel-funding/ · Series A — the-ken.com/blog/the-ken-raises-1-5m-in-its-series-a-round/ · Series B — the-ken.com/blog/the-ken-closes-2m-series-b-funding/
  9. "The Ken at 8: us and you" (Southeast Asia shut down) — the-ken.com/blog/the-ken-at-8-us-and-you/
  10. Spotify Open Access — the-ken.com/blog/unlock-all-of-the-kens-podcasts-on-spotify/
  11. 2024 app rebuild — the-ken.com/blog/the-kens-2024-mobile-and-ipad-apps-are-rebuilt-from-the-ground-up/
  12. Pricing, subscribe and corporate pages, read 5 Oct 2026 — the-ken.com/pricing/ · /subscribe/ · /corporate-teams/
  13. Newsletters, podcasts, team, events, Intermission — the-ken.com/newsletters/ · /podcasts/ · /team/ · /events/ · /intermission/
  14. Zero Shot finale — the-ken.com/columns/zero-shot/this-is-the-end/ · Case Competition 2026 — the-ken.com/case-competition-2026/
  15. robots.txt, read 5 Oct 2026 — the-ken.com/robots.txt
  16. Structured data: 67 of 67 sampled /story/ pages carry NewsArticle with isAccessibleForFree=false and hasPart. 0 of 7 newsletter, podcast and column pages checked carry any JSON-LD, e.g. the-ken.com/newsletters/two-by-two/swiggy-is-eating-itself-to-stay-in-the-game/
8.3

Filings, funding, history

  1. Inc42 Datalabs, Kenrise Media financials (FY24, FY25) and funding — inc42.com/company/the-ken/
  2. Tofler, Kenrise Media Private Limited (CIN U74999KA2016PTC095501) — tofler.in/kenrise-media-private-limited/company/U74999KA2016PTC095501
  3. Tracxn, Kenrise Media legal entity (headcount, cap table, 2026 filings, Kenrise Print Media) — tracxn.com
  4. Reuters Institute, "How an Asian business site attracted 30,000 subscribers publishing one story a day", 2021 — reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk
  5. TechCrunch on The Ken's Series A, Jul 2018 — techcrunch.com/2018/07/18/the-ken-raises-1-5m/
  6. Entrackr on the 2018 angel round — entrackr.com/2018/03/ken-raises-funding-jp-morgan-directors/
  7. Karnataka High Court order, Kenrise Media v. Ashish K Mishra — indiankanoon.org/doc/107841981/
  8. The Morning Context, "Vindication for The Morning Context" — themorningcontext.com/blog/vindication-for-the-morning-context
  9. Story Rules podcast interview with Praveen Gopal Krishnan — storyrules.com
  10. Praveen Gopal Krishnan's profile — theorg.com/org/the-ken/org-chart/praveen-gopal-krishnan · the-ken.com/speakers-bureau/praveen/
8.4

Reviews and ratings

  1. Google Play, The Ken (com.ken.core): rating 4.44 from 1,919, 50K+ installs, version 4.1.31 updated 30 Sep 2026 — play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ken.core
  2. App Store, The Ken (id1282944688): India 4.78 from 2,984; US 4.66 (132); SG 4.80 (79); GB 4.29 (21); AE 4.22 (18) — apps.apple.com/in/app/the-ken/id1282944688
  3. Hacker News threads, e.g. news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36115362 · item?id=35551101
  4. Grapevine threads comparing The Ken and The Morning Context — grapevine.in (dates approximate)
  5. Soham Naik, "Is The Ken subscription worth it?", Medium, May 2020
8.4b

Rival reviews

  1. The Morning Context — Google Play com.app.themorningcontext, App Store 1551672701: all 138 written reviews
  2. Economic Times — com.et.reader.activities, 474766725: 3,000 Play + 520 App Store pulled, 300 labelled
  3. Mint — com.htmedia.mint, 470175900: 3,000 Play + 598 App Store pulled, 300 labelled
  4. Moneycontrol — com.divum.MoneyControl, 408654600: 3,000 Play + 520 App Store pulled, 300 labelled
  5. Business Standard — com.businessstandard.bs, 581918934: 2,281 Play + 298 App Store pulled, 287 labelled

Sampling for each brand is described on the Rival readers page.

8.5

The Perplexity test, raw

Unique cited URLs, by question. 5 October 2026.

QuestionCited sources
Why did Swiggy launch Toing and how is it affecting Zomato?indiantelevision.com · linkedin.com ×5 (4 posts, 1 article) · scribd.com · moneycontrol.com ×2 · filtercoffee.co
What is Singapore Airlines doing to fix Air India?reuters.com · scmp.com · telegraphindia.com · businesstimes.com.sg ×2 · channelnewsasia.com · money.rediff.com ×2 · briefasia.com · jetlinemarvel.net
Why did Hyperpure and Blinkit separate, and is Hyperpure profitable?medianama.com · fortuneindia.com · yourstory.com · zurl.co ×3 · linkedin.com/posts/the-ken_… · economictimes.indiatimes.com · linkedin.com ×3 · inc42.com ×2 · 4-2.co
Why did Byju's collapse?business-standard.com · cnbc.com · linkedin.com (article) · tvsweekly.substack.com · economictimes.indiatimes.com ×2 · ideaproof.io · indiatoday.in · timesofindia.indiatimes.com · thefoxdaily.com
How did TCS start and why does it matter to the Tata group today?tata.com ×4 · tcs.com · umbrex.com · groups.google.com · simple.wikipedia.org · matrixbcg.com · linkedin.com (article)
Why are fresher salaries in Indian IT so low?theprint.in · dqindia.com · thehindubusinessline.com · economictimes.indiatimes.com · linkedin.com ×3 · lnkd.in · collegesimplified.in · timesofindia.indiatimes.com · moneycontrol.com
Which is the best Indian publication for in-depth business journalism worth paying for?themediaant.com · theceo.in ×2 · excellentpublicity.com ×2 · linkedin.com (article) · demo.gae.org · ceoindiamagazine.com · foundermagazine.in · gingermediagroup.com
Is The Ken subscription worth it compared to The Morning Context?the-ken.com/exclusive-3-year-premium-subscription/ · reddit.com/r/IndiaInvestments ×4 (2019, 2020, 2022, 2024 threads) · grapevine.in ×3 · similarweb.com · entrackr.com (2019)

The six topic questions together cite 65 unique URLs. Fifteen are LinkedIn pages (posts, articles or short links). None is a the-ken.com page.

8.6

Market and competitors

  1. The Morning Context pricing and about pages — themorningcontext.com/pricing/individual · /about-us
  2. ET Prime plans — buy.indiatimes.com/ET/plans · Business Standard — business-standard.com/subscription-cart/product · Inc42 Plus — inc42.com/plus/subscribe/ · The CapTable — the-captable.com/subscription/
  3. Moneycontrol Pro 1M paying subscribers — storyboard18.com, Oct 2024 · Super Pro launch — storyboard18.com, Jul 2025
  4. Mint 648,000 paying readers — pressgazette.co.uk/paywalls/biggest-subscription-news-websites-2026/
  5. Entrackr and Ditto financials — inc42.com/company/entrackr/ · inc42.com/company/ditto-insurance/ · Finshots — finshots.in
  6. Zerodha Daily Brief at two years — nithinkamath.substack.com/p/two-years-of-markets-by-zerodha
  7. The Arc — thearcweb.com · The Core and The Signal merger — thecore.in
  8. Semafor revenue and profit — axios.com/2026/01/07/semafor-raises-30-million · Puck — axios.com/2026/08/26/puck-redbird · Axios Pro — digiday.com · Bloomberg Media — niemanlab.org · The Economist — pressgazette.co.uk · The Information — en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Information_(website)
  9. Indian publisher traffic — pressgazette.co.uk (Similarweb monthly top-50) · indianprinterpublisher.com, May 2026
  10. Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025 and 2026, India pages — reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk
  11. FICCI-EY 2026 on digital subscriptions — storyboard18.com
  12. ChatGPT 100M weekly users in India — techcrunch.com, Feb 2026 · Perplexity and Airtel — techcrunch.com, Aug 2026
  13. OpenAI deals with Indian publishers — pressgazette.co.uk · exchange4media.com, Sep 2026
  14. ANI v OpenAI, Delhi High Court, Jul 2026 — cms.law AI case tracker · DPIIT working paper — medianama.com, Dec 2025
8.7

Brand, leakage and social

  1. archive.today listings — archive.ph/the-ken.com · archive.ph/themorningcontext.com (counts read 5 Oct 2026)
  2. Modified APK listing — playmods.net/apps/the-ken/com.ken.core (recorded, not downloaded)
  3. Telegram — t.me invite page for "KEN HUB" (member count only, not joined) · t.me/kenchaneth
  4. Lookalike domains — 277 variants of "theken"/"the-ken" × 15 endings (4,154 domains): DNS (A, MX), RDAP/WHOIS registration data, homepage capture, CertSpotter certificate history. crt.sh was unavailable on 5 Oct 2026
  5. Social handles — public profile pages for about 20 X variants and the main Instagram/YouTube variants, 5 Oct 2026; Telegram t.me handle probes
  6. Moneycontrol WhatsApp-scam injunction, Delhi HC, Dec 2025 — bwlegalworld.com/article/delhi-hc-bars-misuse-of-moneycontrol-name-in-whatsapp-investment-scams-585556
  7. Zerodha warning on fake WhatsApp groups — outlookmoney.com/news/zerodha-ceo-nithin-kamath-alerts-investors-about-whatsapp-investment-scam
  8. SEBI on social-media stock scams, May 2025 — business-standard.com (sebi-warns-investors-about-stock-market-scams-via-social-media-platforms) · SEBI on fraudsters impersonating the regulator, Sep 2025 — business-standard.com
  9. BSE deepfake CEO warning, Jan 2026 — zeenews.india.com
  10. Social followers — public profile pages on X, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube, 5 Oct 2026
  11. Podcast ratings and chart ranks — Apple Podcasts India (ratings and Top 200 feeds), open.spotify.com
  12. Reddit link posts — Arctic Shift archive (may undercount) · Hacker News — hn.algolia.com
8.8

What I couldn't verify

  • Paid subscribers after August 2023. Not disclosed. The ₹2,178 figure assumes the 45,000 from 2023.
  • FY24 loss. Inc42 and Tofler disagree. No reliable figures before FY24.
  • Series B valuation. Sources conflict, so I haven't quoted one.
  • What Kenrise Print Media is for. Only the registry entry is public.
  • What the "KEN HUB" Telegram group posts. It's private, and I didn't join.
  • Whether archive.today copies contain full text or only the preview. Not checked copy by copy.
  • Prices for Mint and Moneycontrol Pro. Taken from reseller pages, because the publishers' sites blocked automated reads.