The Basis of Competition Is No Longer Things but Information and Intelligence
I was reminded of this saying the other day and thought about how the world has changed in my 20+ years of analyzing and advising into the data, information, and analytics economy. When we started Outsell, aggregators were thriving and the internet was in its infancy, with the launch of the browser having just occurred. Newspapers were gorging with profits, and so much of the industry was fat and happy. Search, social, and mobile were not yet conceived, or if they were, they were so far from commercialization as to be just a glimmer in someone’s mind or happening someplace deep in DARPA (which hadn’t yet let the genie out of the bottle).
And now, 20 years later, the basis of competition is no longer things but information and intelligence, and gold is the data that fuels these activities, now on steroids using machine learning and AI. We are seeing announcements every day about the use of these technologies in real applications to run our internal operations or fuel better information solutions at the point of need. We see more solutions using blockchain to ensure data provenance and make sure that the data fueling these solutions is real and worthy.
Today, the pacemaker, car, tractor, airplane, building, drilling platform, refrigerator, and factory are the things that enable the data that comes off their backs, as the world of IoT begins to open up and be harnessed to enable machines to talk to machines. And the next UI will be no UI as machines become one another’s customers. We see text giving way to visual, listening (video/podcast), and eventually augmented reality. Text as the primary vehicle for information delivery will wane and at an increasing rate.
We think media (often used as the term to connote advertising/lead-gen-based businesses) will continue to come under pressure, particularly in the consumer realm. Newspapers will be largely gone within 10 years; magazines will continue to exist, but any print that is maintained will be specialty — very high end. Note today’s announcement that Saturday print editions are stopping immediately at McClatchy.
Advertising will be largely gone or directed to the major platforms. Amazon will win because they own commerce, the ultimate UI enabling frictionless commerce, and more and more through its machines as Alexa hooks into our homes and orders what we need by voice instead of keystrokes.
On the business side, more data and paid information solutions will continue to be delivered via atomized cuts through APIs into major platforms used by the enterprise. Standalone doorways and passwords will go by the wayside except for those who own their categories. Many information solutions providers will continue to be integrated or disappear. IoT and other machine-to-machine engagement will power solutions, and many information solutions will be automated. For major applications — think sales, procurement, or risk — a major 1, 2, or 3 platform owns the desktop, and to be in that workflow means to deliver through an API or other means if one wants to play in that ecosystem.
Indeed, we are living in the era of data. What continues to amaze me is that 20 years ago, when we spoke of value drivers and what makes information services firms of value, we spoke about unique data, point of solution, and recurring revenue. In some ways, so little changes, and so much stays the same. Only now it’s happening at such a pace and volume that it is nearly impossible to keep up. Data is infinitely available, and making it smart and usable is our opportunity. It’s no longer data made by people but more so made by machines and things. Even John Deere has said it is no longer a tractor company but an intelligence company. Power to the data and to the machines.
We’re covering IoT a lot these days and looking at the competitiveness of companies playing in the data ecosystem. If you have questions, need data, or are investing, let us know. We are here to ensure you make great decisions when you invest or operate in this world.