Data Marketplaces and Exchanges: A Summary

While the term “data marketplace” may bring to mind images of leather-clad Matrix hackers selling your data in the city’s seedy underbelly, the reality is a lot less nefarious.

A data marketplace is exactly what is it sounds like: an online marketplace where people can buy and sell data. In a data marketplace, users can easily compare and contrast buying and selling prices to make the most money or get the best deal. However, the marketplace typically does not participate in the trading of data, as they simply serve as a safe and secure go-between for buyers and sellers.

Data marketplaces are not dissimilar to many other online marketplaces you may have visited before, such as Craigslist, eBay, or AirBnB.

So what do all of these websites have in common? It’s simple: they do not own any of the property that is being traded on the website, they just serve as a place for buyers and sellers to connect, called a “two-sided market”.

Data marketplaces for two-sided markets. Data marketplaces don’t own any of the data being sold, instead they serve as a space for users to connect int order to buy and sell their goods and services, effectively brining the two sides of the exchange together. Sellers want to find a buyer to capitalize on their data, while buyers want to purchase data that will be useful for their purposes.

Data marketplaces help them meet in the middle whatever their needs.

As time goes on, more and more data is being generated and there are no signs of the slowing down. Businesses are finding that they have automatically produced more data than they could ever know what to do with, and data marketplaces are a wonderful way for them to offload this data onto parties who may find it useful-for a price. In turn, this can help the organization buying the data with useful information.

Data marketplaces are not just for Neo-level data savants, as they are designed to be user-friendly and accessible to everyone. Many are created with other popular marketplaces in mind, so users can scroll through a data marketplace just as easily as they can navigate other websites like Craigslist or Amazon. Data marketplaces are meant to be accessible, as is the data that is being exchanged-most of the data sets sold on these websites are analytics-ready, so they are ready to be accessed immediately.

It’s as easy as going online shopping, instead of buying a new t-shirt, a user might buy an in-depth database.

Additionally, data marketplaces can help users tap into a whole world of data that they might never have discovered, all right at their fingertips. Vendors from all over the globe can offer data sets for sale, granting buyers a fresh perspective that they likely never would have seen if it was not for a data marketplace.

Remember, you don’t need to escape the Matrix just to get your hands on some data. Data marketplaces make it easy for you to get the information you need.