Daybreak The Ken

In this week's Daybreak Special episode, hosts Snigdha Sharma and Rahel Philipose speak to The Ken's Shivani Verma about her investigation into Pharmeasy's dubious business practices.
The once IPO-bound company is under the scanner for its 'unethical' ways of upselling alternative medicines and supplements. Everyone – from Pharmeasy's own pharmacists, to the doctors who call behalf of the company to validate a customer's prescription – are under pressure to sell these supplements.
The saga began with Pharmeasy’s 2021  acquisition of Bengaluru-based e-pharmacy Medlife, where former executives noted a similar trend of upselling alternatives and supplements.  This comes amid ballooning losses and immense pressure from investors to show profitability.
So what's the deal? Why is Pharmeasy going down this route?
Tune in to find out.
Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
P.S. Daybreak episodes drop daily now :)

Thanks to Swiggy and Blinkit, it’s gotten to a point where getting everything – from your groceries to a literal water cooler – delivered to your doorstep within minutes has become pretty routine. Something we expect. 

But there is so much going on behind the scenes to make that delivery possible. Like one executive told The Ken, it’s a combination of solid logistics and precise inventory management.

Pulling that off with just groceries that you can easily throw into a carrier and strap on to a bike is one thing. But then you go and add things like water coolers, mixer grinders, even iPhones to the mix. It sounds like a logistical nightmare. 

But it’s a nightmare that quick commerce apps like Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart and Zepto have dived headfirst into. They are becoming everything stores, almost like ‘mini Amazons’. And with that, the very nature of quick commerce is changing. 

If you were flying sometime last month, you may have noticed, staff from Digiyatra, the contactless, biometric entry system at airports, were repeating the same thing over and over again to passengers at the entrance: “The old app is discontinued, please download the new app.” Passengers were only given this information at the airport. None of them received any notifications or SMSes.

Apart from inconveniencing passengers, this also sent  alarm bells ringing among some of them. Because, think about it. Usually you're asked to update an app, not delete it and download a new one, right?

Anyway, most attributed it to some kind of a tech upgrade, which was also what Digiyatra Foundation (DYF), the company that runs the app said. Apparently, it was a part of their plan to expand to a larger user base.

But you know what? That’s not the real reason. Behind it all, is a scam.
Tune in.
Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
P.S. Daybreak episodes drop daily now :)

No other payment aggregator has been able to pull off what Phonepe has in less than a year. 

Its nearly 50 per cent market share is obviously a huge draw for new merchants. And in the last couple years, its been able to onboard some pretty big names like Bharti Airtel and IRCTC. 

But the bigger the client, the more ruthless their demands. At the end of the day, they are only loyal to the aggregator that promises them the lowest prices and highest success rates. 

So how does PhonePe make sure that it stays on top? And where does that leave everyone else? 
Tune in.
Correction: The host mistakenly referred to NPCI as NCPI towards the end of this episode. We apologise for the error.
Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
P.S. Daybreak episodes drop daily now :)

The lure of appearing on the popular reality show on national television is so strong that even startups that already have been funded by VCs and institutional investors want to get on Shark Tank. In fact, investors themselves are asking their founders to go on the show.

Money or funding is not the goal for these startups. It's the marketing opportunity they want.

But Sony, the producer of the Shark Tank is trying its best to make sure that the show doesn't lose its real purpose: to be an investment platform.
Tune in.
Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
P.S. Daybreak episodes drop daily now:)

Contrary to its name, the US-based skincare brand 'The Ordinary' pulled off something pretty extraordinary when it was launched in 2016. From the beginning, it was all about transparency. It veered away from fancy packaging, instead opting for simple labels that list out all of the main ingredients, or 'actives', that were used to make the product.
And just like that, the brand managed to demystify active ingredients for everyone!
This kicked off somewhat of a skincare revolution around the world, including in India. Today, anyone who understands skincare knows what active ingredients are and which one is best suited for their skin. Suddenly, hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, AHAs and BHAs are all part of common parlance.
But it took more than just 'The Ordinary effect' to get here.
Daybreak co-hosts Snigdha Sharma and Rahel Philipose speak to Shamika Haldipurkar, the founder of premium skincare brand d'you, and Vasudha Rai, former beauty editor of Harper's Bazaar and skincare content creator, to unpack this change in perception.
If you have already listened to this episode, please give us your feedback here.
Correction: The host mistakenly referred to The Ordinary as a US-based company instead of Canada. The error is regretted.
Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
P.S. Starting this week, Daybreak episodes drop daily :)