

Ask HN: Are data markets a bust? - emrgx

It does not seem like data markets are taking off despite the initial excitement around them. Where do you think this market is heading?
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rpedela
It depends. I think the problem most data websites have is that the user still
has to do a lot of work to actually use the data.

Although not exactly a market, data.gov is a good example of what not to do.
It is a gigantic list of datasets which is hard to search. Often the dataset
is not in a usable format such as PDF or HTML, or it just links to another
website which has a worse UI for accessing the data. The counter example is
Factual which has a nice API and the ability to download their curated and
cleaned datasets.

Many data websites are more like data.gov than Factual.

EDIT: I made the assumption you were asking about data websites. There are
data markets that have existed for years behind closed doors between big
companies. An example is health insurance companies buying de-identified
health records for research purposes. As far as I aware, these markets are
still doing well.

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chewxy
In what sense? DMPs are doing fine in online advertising.

