The Ken eyes regional expansion with local teams

The Ken, a business news site based out of Bengaluru, is plotting regional expansion with local teams. The company had found product-market fit in India and took the expansion into Southeast Asia. A source from the company said the region looked a lot like the India where The Ken started in 2016. The growth rates, aspiration, and competitive drive in Southeast Asia were closer to what the news site found among its readers in India than what it would be in the US and Europe. Additionally, many of the Southeast Asian markets had significant numbers of people who are comfortable with English.

The Ken consulted with their first hire, Jon Russell, a Bangkok-based reporter who was covering Asia for TechCrunch at the time. Then, they launched first with Russell in Bangkok in July 2019. In the next six months, Russell helped hire out their team, which now spans five journalists (including Russell) across Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Customers who wish to read Southeast Asia coverage will have to subscribe to the new publication, which will come with an independent newsletter (Russell is the region’s managing editor).