5 Things We Learned From Bright Data’s “The Web Data Revolution” Documentary

2.5 quintillion bytes of data are generated every single day. For most of us, that's a number simply beyond our comprehension. Nevertheless, as the world becomes more digitized and interconnected, this number will only continue to grow.

So, what can we do with all this data, and how do we make sense of it?

These are the questions that Bright Data sets out to answer with their short data documentary, "The Web Data Revolution." Through a series of interviews with clients from around the world, the film explores the ways in which data is changing our lives, our businesses, and our world.

Here are five key takeaways from the film: Data is making unknowable questions, knowable

In the past, there were many questions that we simply didn't have the data to answer.

However, as data collection and processing technologies have become more sophisticated, we are now able to answer seemingly unknowable questions with incredible accuracy, giving rise to a myriad of new applications and business use cases.

The documentary begins by discussing how Sam Walton, founder of Walmart, would sometimes assess the performance of his stores by counting the number of cars in his parking lots (which he would do while flying in a helicopter above). The more cars he could see, the more dollars he predicted would be flowing into the store.

Fast forward to 2022, and Walmart can now leverage immense volumes of data to not only understand how many people are in their stores, but also what they're buying, how long they're staying, and even what they're saying about the experience on social media.

This level of understanding of consumer behavior is something that Walton probably couldn't even have conceived of back in the 1960s.

Good leadership means asking the right questions

Now that we have access to more data than ever before, it's important to know how to use it effectively. Asking the right questions is a crucial part of this process. After all, data itself is useless without the ability to draw insights from it.

Unfortunately, there are many examples of data being misinterpreted or used out of context. This can be extremely harmful to businesses and it can create flawed insights and lead companies to build upon false assumptions.

Yet, if leaders are able to ask the right questions, they can use data analytics to help disprove biases, discover new opportunities for their business, and make decisions without preconceptions. This leads to smarter and more efficient organizations.

"Get the questions right and, to an outside observer, your competitive advantage can look downright unfair," says Bright Data CEO, Or Lenchner.

The power of alternative data is skyrocketing

The documentary visits Bright Data client and Boston hedge fund manager Micah to demonstrate how he uses data to generate and validate new investment ideas.

Micah reveals how he utilizes alternative data to supplement conventional sources (such as earnings calls and annual reports) when making investment decisions, leading him to some incredible insights.

In this particular example, Micah uses alternative web data to uncover a clear trend of rising retail prices (for bleach products), which confirmed that the chemical company that he wanted to invest in was well placed to weather an inflationary market and protect its margins.

Incredibly, investment firms are using all sorts of alternative web data to help them make more informed decisions and gain an edge in the market. Some examples of alternative web data include credit card transactions, satellite imagery, and even weather data to help predict crop yields.

Given its popularity in the investment world, the alternative web data market is expected to grow to a staggering $149 billion by 2030 – which would be more than 50x its value in 2021.

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Data can be the differentiator in obtaining a competitive edge

Throughout history, there have been countless examples of companies that have come out on top by being the first to market with a new product or service, winning over key customers, or simply outspending and outmaneuvering their competition.

Of course, this meant that many small and medium-sized businesses were faced with huge barriers to entry since they could not compete with larger companies that were able to employ more resource-intensive strategies.

However, with the rise of publicly available web data, even the smallest business can find new opportunities, validate hypotheses, and discover efficiencies – leveling the playing field in a sense.

For example, Bright Data client Maia used web data to gain a serious edge over her competitors in the eCommerce space. Her first move was to use public data collection tools to discover the pricing strategy of all her competitors across all the major digital retailers.

She then used this data to reverse-engineer a more competitive pricing structure for her business – one that would still allow her to make a healthy profit without alienating consumers. In addition, Maia could continuously track a wide array of competitive data, such as prices, discounts, inventory levels, and more, to always be one step ahead of her competition.

Ultimately, by leveraging web data, Maia was able to gain a serious edge when it came to establishing her marketing and pricing strategies, as well as keeping her finger on the pulse of the competitive landscape.

More accurate and relevant data benefits everyone

Not only does data have the power to help businesses gain a competitive edge, but it can also be used as a key driving force to help build and sustain a greater global society.

For instance, data can be used to help identify social issues early on, track the spread of disease, and even predict natural disasters. In the past, these sorts of issues were often only discovered after it was too late to do anything about them. However, with the rise of big data and data analytics, we now have the ability to track and predict these events in real time.

The documentary highlights how web data was used to rescue four women from a human trafficking ring in Chicago during a police operation last year. Amazingly, this was made possible thanks to web data collected from online commercial sex advertisements, data science, and network analysis to identify potential trafficking activity.

Conclusion

It's clear that data, especially web data, has the power to change the world as we know it. Not only can it be used to help businesses gain a competitive edge and deliver more value to consumers, but it can also be harnessed to help solve some of the world's most pressing social and economic issues.

As the web data adoption curve continues to accelerate, we can only imagine the possibilities that will be made possible in the years to come. But if the past is any indication, we can be sure that data will continue to change the world for the better.