The world has changed a lot in the last few decades, especially when it comes to the amount of information available. In the past, businesses had to rely on little bits of information collected from neighbors and other businesses in the area. However, with the invention of the internet, businesses suddenly had a wealth of information right at their fingertips. Have you ever wondered if there is a limit to the number of information users can access on the internet?
In this article, we’ll take a closer look at how the abundance of data as well as what open data sources are. We’ll also look at how businesses benefit from the vast amounts of data stored online. Finally, we’ll briefly discuss how tools like an Amazon scraper can help businesses collect all the data they require.
Is There A Limit To Data Availability For Businesses?
Data is being generated every single day. It can be generated directly from users and how they use the internet and various social media platforms. Data is generated by businesses aiming to interact with their audience and grow their brand awareness. Information can also be generated by various smart devices such as smart TVs, fridges, and more.
By the end of 2020, the entire digital universe was made up of 44 zettabytes of data. Putting that into perspective, you’d need a 15 million square foot warehouse to store .001 zettabytes. As such, you’d require 44 000 of these warehouses to store all the information currently contained on the web – that would nearly fill up the entire state of West Virginia.
At the moment, it doesn’t seem like there’s any limit to the amount of data that is available to businesses. This year alone, 91% of Instagram users engaged with brand videos from businesses, 650 million Tweets are being sent daily, and 333.2 billion emails are sent each day. These stats, while not surprising, just go to show how much information is being shared on a daily basis.
Strategies for Leveraging Data Abundance
Data abundance has undoubtedly had a disruptive impact on many aspects of business. Due to the availability of more data, organizations have been able to gain insights into their customers and operations quickly and efficiently. However, as data emerges from its dormant state, it can be hard for businesses to make sense of what is available, let alone how best to use it.
To help organizations benefit from the increasing quantity of data out there and navigate this new normal, businesses must formulate a strategy for leveraging their data. Here are some key strategies that can be implemented:
Embracing an analytical culture:
Companies should consider promoting an analytical culture within the organization in order to ensure everyone is capable of processing and understanding the data they are dealing with. Organizations should look at hiring data-savvy professionals with strong technical backgrounds alongside those with strong business acumen and decision-making skills.
Automating processes:
Automation is not just about technology integration but also about seamless communication between teams within an organization. Automating the manual processes reduces the burden on both staff and allows ensuring accuracy in the record keeping process resulting in efficient utilization of resources across departments in real time.
How Has Open Data Changed The Playing Field?
The creation of open data is a more recent phenomenon that’s been occurring more frequently. It allows anyone to access, use and distribute information. With easier access to information, businesses, individuals, politicians, and governments can better interact with each other, offer better service delivery and improve on current services.
What Is Open Data
Open data is the process where businesses and governments make their data available to the public to be analysed, reused and distributed by anyone. In the past, many businesses would keep their information hidden or protected behind copyright laws. However, in recent years more people have begun to realise how useful access to information is.
Open data is still licenced, but under this licence, anyone can access, use, analyse, manipulate and share the information as long as they give the appropriate credit to the original source. This makes it much easier for businesses to collect accurate and relevant information without burdening websites with various data collection tools.
Benefits Of Open Data
Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of open data:
- It gives business opportunities for growth
- It helps develop and support entrepreneurial endeavours
- Helps businesses, governments and individuals work together for better solutions
- Boosts customer intelligence
- Creates more value for consumers
- Helps to streamline the public sector
- Enable more citizen participation and activism
How Can Businesses Get Access To Data?
Open data has levelled the playing field for many businesses by giving everyone access to the same data. When utilised appropriately, even small businesses or startups can get a competitive advantage by using and analysing open data and using the information to improve their offerings.
With good API access, businesses can access and analyse the stock market or find other opportunities. Using web scrapers to automatically collect open data is an efficient way for businesses to gather the information they need for their various applications. There are also different types of web scrapers available, like an Amazon scraper, that have been specially developed to access and collect public information from these types of platforms.
When looking at specialized tools, like the Amazon scraper we mentioned, make sure to check for one that has a proxy pool already included, as this will save you time, effort and money – giving you faster access to the data you require.
Final Thoughts
The abundance of data and the introduction and acceptance of open data means that businesses have access to more information than ever before.
By collecting and analysing this data with the help of web scrapers and proxies, businesses can have all the information they need to make better business decisions. From monitoring competitors to identifying market trends and discovering business opportunities, the abundance of data online has completely levelled the playing field.
