I have first hand experience doing this, true, for some cases it is invaluable, but in most cases extracting valuable data from something that was designed primarily for billing purposes is just as hard.
So cool, this idea makes a lot of sense to me. I sold a data viz article to a newspaper and was surprised to learn that the biggest value we provided was compiling the (publicly available) data.
I'm not sure this is correct always. Sure you can get much of the information for free, but not any, as you mention. And even if you did, you'd be paying for it with your time, spending hours and days poring over data and separating facts from noise. For example: if you are an investor, can you get information on potential opportunities (stocks to buy or whatever) without having to spend money or a lot of time? What about real estate? If you or a loved one has a unusual medical condition and you're interested in knowing every recent development in the diagnosis, treatment etc of the condition, can you get it accurately and quickly for free?
Happy to be proven wrong, but I guess we'd be paying for good information/commentary/analysis etc one way or other - with time or money.
There is no reason to believe they don't monetize the data coming in from paid services. In fact, that data is even more valuable than random freebie users.
Well, the data comes from a substantial investment, which much be returned, or the business will be a failure. This is not a public service-- if you did some cool shit, but ultimately the bottom line is turning a dollar invested into fifty cents returned, you have explicitly and decisively failed in your work.
The amount of valuable data generated from professionals using these services to work through their problems and find solutions to industry problems is immense. It essentially gives these companies the keys to automating many industries by just...letting people try and make their jobs easier and collecting all data.
Clearly that venue data is valuable to them. Guaranteeing 99% accuracy can be a crucial selling point for 3rd parties. With a subscription-based offering, that data can provide a significant revenue stream.
Data is valuable and if you have legitimate reasons for collecting any (to improve the service of your add ons) there is always a good chance to monetize there. Highly contextual on what your add ons do though.
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