Before Amazon reported Q3 2021 earnings, some hedge funds already knew the company had a strong quarter. Not from inside information. From satellite imagery of Amazon's fulfillment centers.
This is Alternative dataAlternative dataDonnées non-traditionnelles utilisées pour l'analyse d'investissement ou le renseignement concurrentiel : images satellites, transactions bancaires, géolocalisation, scraping web, mentions sociales.. And it's reshaping how sophisticated organizations use data for decisions.
Alternative data refers to information generated outside traditional business systems, not financial statements, not sales reports, not official surveys. It's data collected as a byproduct of digital activity, physical movement, or economic transactions.
The market for Alternative dataAlternative dataDonnées non-traditionnelles utilisées pour l'analyse d'investissement ou le renseignement concurrentiel : images satellites, transactions bancaires, géolocalisation, scraping web, mentions sociales. exceeded $14 billion in 2024 (Neudata) and is growing at 40%+ per year. Early adopters were hedge funds seeking investment alpha. Mainstream adopters are now retailers, manufacturers, and strategy teams seeking competitive edgecompetitive edgeA lasting edge over competitors: a resource, capability or position they cannot easily replicate, letting a firm earn above-average returns over time.Voir la définition complète →.
1. Satellite and aerial imagery
Planet Labs, Spire Global, and Orbital Insight operate fleets of small satellites providing daily imagery of virtually any location on Earth. Applications:
Walmart tracks Amazon's warehouse activity. Agricultural commodity traders track crop conditions before USDA reports. The data is public (satellites observe publicly visible activity) and commercially available via APIAPIApplication Programming Interface: a standardised interface that lets applications communicate and exchange data without knowing each other's internal workings.Voir la définition complète →.
2. Credit card and transaction data
Companies like Second Measure and Earnest Research aggregate billions of anonymized credit card transactions, creating spending indices by merchant, category, and geography.
Bloomberg Terminal subscribers access this data to track DoorDash's real revenue trends week-by-week, before the company reports quarterly earnings. Second Measure tracked Netflix subscriber retention in real time during the password-sharing crackdown, months before Netflix reported the impact in their earnings.
3. App usage and digital signals
data.ai (formerly App Annie) and Apptopia track app downloads, usage frequency, session length, and rating trends for millions of apps. When a competitor's app daily active users are declining 15% month-on-month, that's a leading indicator of customer dissatisfaction, visible 6 months before it shows up in churn rates.
4. Job posting and hiring data
Already covered as a CI tool. At scale: Revelio Labs tracks hiring velocity for public companies and sells this as a predictor of revenue growth. Hiring 50 data scientists in Q1 predicts a significant technology investment 6-12 months later.
Vérification des acquis
1. What best defines 'alternative data'?
2. Why is satellite imagery of parking lots or factory smokestacks valuable to analysts?
3. A strategy team notices a competitor's app has declining daily active users month-over-month. Why is this considered a useful signal?
4. Select ALL statements that correctly describe the nature and use of alternative data.
Sélectionnez toutes les réponses correctes.
5. Select ALL examples that correctly match an alternative data category to its typical application.
Sélectionnez toutes les réponses correctes.
For most organizations outside financial services, Alternative dataAlternative dataDonnées non-traditionnelles utilisées pour l'analyse d'investissement ou le renseignement concurrentiel : images satellites, transactions bancaires, géolocalisation, scraping web, mentions sociales. is used at three levels:
Level 1, Consume: Buy access to one or two Alternative dataAlternative dataDonnées non-traditionnelles utilisées pour l'analyse d'investissement ou le renseignement concurrentiel : images satellites, transactions bancaires, géolocalisation, scraping web, mentions sociales. providers for specific use cases. Low investment, immediate value. The right starting point.
Level 2, Integrate: Build Data pipelines integrating Alternative dataAlternative dataDonnées non-traditionnelles utilisées pour l'analyse d'investissement ou le renseignement concurrentiel : images satellites, transactions bancaires, géolocalisation, scraping web, mentions sociales. feeds into your existing analytics infrastructure. Data becomes a persistent signal, not a one-off report.
Level 3, Produce: Generate your own Alternative dataAlternative dataDonnées non-traditionnelles utilisées pour l'analyse d'investissement ou le renseignement concurrentiel : images satellites, transactions bancaires, géolocalisation, scraping web, mentions sociales. as a byproduct of operations and monetize it. This is the Mastercard/Amazon level, your operational data becomes a product for others.
Most organizations should start at Level 1 and build to Level 2 within 18 months. Level 3 is a strategic bet for later.
Alternative dataAlternative dataDonnées non-traditionnelles utilisées pour l'analyse d'investissement ou le renseignement concurrentiel : images satellites, transactions bancaires, géolocalisation, scraping web, mentions sociales. sits in a complex legal and ethical space:
A CDO implementing Alternative dataAlternative dataDonnées non-traditionnelles utilisées pour l'analyse d'investissement ou le renseignement concurrentiel : images satellites, transactions bancaires, géolocalisation, scraping web, mentions sociales. capabilities needs a governance framework before the first feed goes live. The governance cost is low. The risk of ignoring it is not.