Data is Money, Or.....?

 One of the reasons for high valuations of Google, Facebook etc is the sheer volume of data they hold which they can monetise. It is the reason Google assistant is able to answer you better than Alexa or Siri. The sheer volume of data it learns from.

Very soon, many players will have data. In the traditional world, there are many organisations which sit on mountains of data already. Then how is it they are unable to encash?

Before you think this note is a veiled pitch on analytics, it is not.

Let’s take an example. Spotify,itunes,Google music and many others have the same catalogues or content. Apple and Google have tons more money than Spotify. Then how is Spotify able to retain a large market share? What gives?

From the user behaviour, it has figured the right way to enhance playlists so it knows exactly how to delight you with a song based on what you just heard ,or heard before. This is why people are hooked to Spotify that it is able to 'know' exactly what they like and is playing the 'right' thing.

Apple and Google with the same catalogue of content haven’t figured this ,yet.

Bottomline is the value is not just in content( which will soon become a common denominator among quite a few), but in the connections to those pieces of content that could be the differentiator to hook the user.

You need not own the data, if you have the magic sauce of making the 'right' connections that bring value to the user!