When big data can lead to big profit

Li Min / China Daily

Businesses gear up to the need for deep analysis

It is hard to collect, analyze, store, search and visualize big data, but it is what everyone is talking about and something that companies and governments are finding is worth its weight in gold.

But what makes it a billion dollar business is its ability to sift the wheat from the chaff and provide the cutting-edge information vital for companies and governments to power ahead, analysts say.

Big data will be a key factor in competition and the growth of individual firms, says global consultancy major McKinsey & Co in a recent report, adding that it will be particularly relevant in areas such as productivity growth, innovation and consumer surplus, when someone is willing to pay more for a product than the market price.

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Managing big data in a complex economy

Nowhere is big data more important than in China, the world's fastest-growing economy. With its huge population of more than 1.35 billion, rapidly expanding economy and increasing amount of Internet penetration, it is fast becoming a market that no company worth its salt can ignore. Chinese and overseas companies are now finding that having access to real-time insights with big data is more than handy for understanding fast-changing customer trends, says Miao Kaixiang, chief technology officer of the data center software division of Intel Corp. Big data is also a handy tool for governments because it helps to attract fresh investment and create more local jobs, says Miao.

In layman's, terms big data refers to the technologies used to collect, process, store, share and analyze huge volumes of data such as text, documents, videos and pictures.

Big data, however, differs from data mining and data-warehousing. While data mining is the process of discovering interesting patterns from previous data stored, it can handle only limited amounts and usually focuses on abnormal data or errors.

Data warehousing on the other hand refers to simple data storage and is more of a central repository of information from multiple sources. Data warehouses store current and historical data for further analysis through big data technology or data mining.

According to Miao, not too many people realize they are part of the big data generation process. Citing the example of a person searching online for a new smartphone, analysts say individual preferences and requirements are tracked by search engines and used for targeted advertising. Enterprises can also extrapolate big data to gain meaningful insights and chart successful market strategies.

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