Think Big Data: Act Small Data
Business is obsessed with data – data is the new raw material to crunch. Beliefs are being strengthened that data beats emotions. Data really powers everything we do. Being a statistician is supposed to be the sexiest job over next few decades. And Big Data is the new buzz. Without big data analytics, companies are blind and deaf, wandering out onto the web like deer on a freeway, exclaims Moore. Peter Sondergaard asserts that while information is the oil of the 21st century, analytics is the combustion engine. Even Larry Page of Google admits his surrendering to big data, as it also sounds cooler.
According to dictionary.com, Big Data is “extremely large data sets that may be analysed computationally to reveal patterns, trends, and associations, especially relating to human behaviour and interactions.” Big data has changed the way the companies analyse their consumers’ behaviour. And it has changed our approach to target consumers and position products and services. It’s the tool to reach out and influence the consumers’ mind.
Big Data enables marketers to keep a bird’s eye view with a high level of dependency on analytics. But then, there have been critic and cynic and pragmatic perspectives too. Ariely speaks Big Data is like teenage sex: everyone talks about it, nobody really knows how to do it, everyone thinks everyone else is doing it, so everyone claims they are doing it. Coase mocks, “Torture the data, and it will confess to anything”. The infamous ridicule of Lang, “He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp posts-for support rather than for illumination”, has some solid merit. Fiorina, the balanced CEO, enlightens – The goal is to turn data into information, and information into insight.
Today we heavily rely on big data, about how becoming the number 1 Cricket world cup team by applying analytics to analyse data about the opponent players (how he get out often etc). In the same spirit, big data augments or even overrule the human judgment. Analytics based on statistical analysis of data forces marketers to reconsider their instincts. Influence of the subject matter experts is reducing in many areas, one such example is that of Amazon, where Jeff Bezos got replaced in-house book reviewers with algorithmic recommendations. The Internet has a glut of data – finding information is like drinking from a fire hose. Big data is a massive collection of data from various sources (variety) coming at various speed (velocity), and in various quantity (volume), and social media websites are adding the huge amount of data everyday-every second.
Gartner Analyst, Doug Laney estimated that the worldwide information is growing by 59% and proposed the 3Vs of Big Data – Volume, Variety and Velocity. Big data on social media is created with all the pictures that you share, all the smileys that you post, all the videos that you share, all your likes, comments, and shares, tweets, blogs, videos, posts, links, data from GPS signals, etc., adds up to 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day.
Here are some facts about social media and big data:
1. Facebook takes 500 times more data each day than the New York Stock Exchange.
2. Twitter produce 12 times more data each day than the New York Stock Exchange.
3. Facebook tracks every computer IP a user has logged in from, and other users who have logged before and after you from the same computer up to 800 pages size of data per users.
4. More than 4 Billion hours of videos are watched on YouTube each month.
5. More than 30 billion pieces of content are shared on Facebook each day.
According to Viktor Mayer & Kenneth Cukier, big data will be a source of new economic value and innovation.
