By Erez Naveh, SVP of Product at Bright Data
Increasing price pressures amidst global economic uncertainty are making this data-driven market look at web data even more. Here’s why. On one hand, the technology used to collect and analyse web data is continuing to evolve and offer potential new opportunities for businesses looking to leverage it. On the other hand, wider trends, such as the tech corporations’ growing hold over public web data, i.e., web data that is openly available, signal new and evolving challenges ahead.
The last few years of technological advancements in web data products and tools will continue to aid in growing cybersecurity efforts. More businesses in 2023 will be looking to the web data industry to gather and analyse public data so they can have a better chance of identifying and mitigating potential breaches and protect their brand.
However, while advancements in technology are enabling those looking to harness the power of web data, they also play a part in posing challenges. The latest developments in AI and machine learning are exciting but present unchartered challenges when it comes to the collecting, managing, and identifying machine-generated data.
Let’s take a closer look at what could be the three biggest trends set to shape the web data industry in 2023.
- The fight for an open market
Over the past couple of years, ensuring public web data openness has become an increasingly fraught battle. The internet may seem like it’s open (especially in the West), but the truth is that companies have been pushing hard to build a walled garden around web data that was once in the public eye; these companies want to protect all types of data from possible competitors.
This is particularly true in the travel industry, where thanks to the pandemic, competition has become fiercer than ever. This is illustrated by the fact that travel is one of the top three industries to have expanded its reliance on web data over the last 12 months, along with retail and banking. In response, companies are closely guarding their data in an effort to create a greater gap with their competitors.
We’re seeing a similar trend across multiple verticals. This is despite consumers craving a fair and open market where they can access key public information, such as product users’ reviews, and use it to compare offerings.
I expect this “closing trend” to get worse in 2023. Although businesses, and monopolies specifically, will aim to shut access to public data, including data that was specifically once public information, the public, which includes consumers, will continue pushing for transparency. They will be driven by the fight for a fairer market, one that makes it easy for them to find the best products and offers, especially as inflation continues to raise prices.
- Economic uncertainty
The issue around increasing prices and inflation ties into this second trend. Companies around the world have been cutting budgets as they prepare for a potential recession in 2023, and that has also impacted their data operation. However, these companies are also recognising that public web data is crucial to their operations in terms of remaining competitive in the market and making fast, necessary changes that impact their revenue. There’s a relatively simple solution to relying on web data as well as remaining agile and lean while cutting costs. This solution is outsourcing the operation.
In today’s eCommerce-dominated world, consumers are just a click away from finding the best suitable prices offered by their direct competitors. As such, the focus in 2023 will be on finding a way to balance their pricing strategies in a cost-efficient way by relying on frequent draws of market-relevant web data. This will make the difference between consumers switching to competitors’ products or remaining loyal to a specific brand.
- Ensuring brand protection
For decades, brands have struggled with counterfeiting, the reselling of stolen products, and copyright infringement. This has heavily impacted their revenue and plans for further market-share expansion. As less regulated marketplaces continue to grow in popularity, this struggle and threat is expected to grow.
This poses a particularly tough challenge for high-end luxury brands whose products are sought after around the world. Luxury well-known brands are using public web scraping to automatically and routinely conduct checks and protect their brand by tracking stolen goods online and seeing where they are being sold.
In 2023, this issue will manifest across two main channels. The first is established prominent marketplaces, which still feature a huge amount of counterfeit and stolen goods. Then there are the smaller ‘dropshipping’ channels that are purely focused on manufacturing products to the same design specs but at significantly lower costs than the brands themselves.
The challenge is that consumers can now order goods like fake major fashion brands’ bags incredibly easily. Instead of finding them at physical flea markets, they are now online – available from anywhere in the world at any time, which is reported to directly affect luxury brand sales. That’s why we’ll see a much greater focus on tracking these types of sites and branded products in the year ahead.
Ultimately, 2023 is starting off with a huge challenge ahead. However, businesses across every industry already recognise the value of web data collection and should look to work with a cost-effective strategic partner to bolster efforts in 2023. The biggest challenge will be juggling various large-scale commercial pressures and tackling emerging obstacles fast. But those companies who use the best suitable technology will come out on top.
