Ownership mapWho owns what, with the receipt for each link.

See what a choice is connected to

Who owns the brand in front of you, and what else do they own? What could you pick instead? The map keeps each answer as one link between two named things, with the source that says so and the year it was recorded. The app uses these links for the rules you set, such as nothing from Nestlé.

Try the example map The relationship file Read the map note

344 ownership links29 parent companies4 sourced alternatives14 links with no web source yetCounted 29 Sept 2026 from edges.json

Plate IFig. 1. Trust rules, and one parent company with two rival brands.

Two rival VPNs with the same owner

ExpressVPN and Private Internet Access compete for the same customers, and Kape Technologies owns both. Click or tab to a line to read the claim behind it.

Pick a line. A solid line is a sourced record from the data. The dashed one is computed, and says so.

sourced recordcomputed

Trust rules

Name both sides. A link joins two named things, such as ExpressVPN and Kape Technologies. Never a brand and a vague "big tech".
Show the source or calculation. A sourced link says who said so and in what year. A computed link says it was computed, and from what.
Keep corrections visible. A challenge goes through fact repair with its own source, and once checked it changes the map for everyone.

What's happening. Four real names and three links. The two solid lines are records copied from the data file, each with its source. The dashed line is drawn only for this example, because the data has no sourced alternative for any VPN yet.

Why it matters. Switching from ExpressVPN to Private Internet Access changes the logo and not the owner. Kape also owns CyberGhost and ZenMate, so four VPN brands that look like rivals have one owner.

Devil's advocate. A receipt is only as good as its source, and these two cite Wikipedia, plus a news site for one of them, not a company filing. Both are among the 14 links in the file with a written source and no web address. Before you trust a VPN ranking, note that Kape also bought a publisher of VPN reviews, Webselenese, in 2021.

Rabbit hole. Open Kape Technologies in the app to see every brand the map links to it, or read its Wikipedia history, where it turns out Kape was called Crossrider until 2018.

Plate IIWhat the map should do, and how much of it the data holds today.

Four kinds of link, two of them built

Ownership is most of the map. The rest is either small or still a plan, and the table says which.

Link	The question it answers	In the data today
Owned by	Who is behind this brand, and what else do they own?	344 links to 29 parent companies, from Nestlé to Alphabet.
Alternative to	If I walk away from this one, what do I pick instead?	4 links, all between banks, each with a web source.
Resembles	What in another subject shares these values? For example, a cloud storage company owned by its members, the way a credit union is.	Not stored. The engine can compute a likeness; the data file holds these back until there are enough alternatives inside each subject.
Organizes with	Who else is making the same switch, so one person's choice becomes a group's?	Not built. Group agreement and the shared plan do this by hand for now.

in the datanamed here, not built

Plate IIIFig. 2. The ExpressVPN record, exactly as it appears in the data file.

A link is a small record with a source

Two names, the relation between them, a source, and the year it was recorded. A correction to a link looks the same as a correction to any other fact.

{
  "format": "open-values-edges",
  "version": "0.1",
  "edges": [{
    "from": "ovs:vpn/expressvpn",
    "rel": "owned-by",
    "to": "ovs:org/kape-technologies",
    "source": "Kape Technologies (British-Israeli; owner Teddy Sagi) acquired ExpressVPN in 2021; it also owns CyberGhost, Private Internet Access and ZenMate. Source: Kape Technologies (Wikipedia); CyberInsider.",
    "asof": "2026"
  }]
}

One of 678 records in app/edges.json.

Sourced linksOwnership, alternatives, makers and organisers. A new one needs a web address for its source.

Computed linksLikeness worked out from how two options score, and labelled computed wherever it shows.

Merging filesTwo relationship files merge on from + rel + to, and every source is kept.

Citing a nodeAny node can be exported as JSON-LD, so another website can cite it.

If you have one, write it in this shape and send it with Add a relationship.

Know an owner we missed? Send the page that proves it.