{"id":43008,"date":"2013-10-13T21:04:43","date_gmt":"2013-10-14T01:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/forex-news\/?p=43008"},"modified":"2013-10-13T21:04:43","modified_gmt":"2013-10-14T01:04:43","slug":"twitter-ipo-hits-pay-dirt-from-data-mining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex-news\/2013\/10\/13\/twitter-ipo-hits-pay-dirt-from-data-mining\/","title":{"rendered":"Twitter IPO Hits Pay Dirt From Data Mining"},"content":{"rendered":"

By MoneyMorning.com.au<\/u><\/a> <\/p>\n

Facebook (FB)…Groupon (GRPN)…Zynga (ZNGA)…Angie’s List (ANGI).<\/p>\n

When we saw a rash of social media companies like these go public, I was sceptical.<\/p>\n

To me, while their services were popular, their business models – their actual way of monetising that popularity – didn’t seem very secure, never mind lucrative.<\/p>\n

I mean, who wants to own Angie’s List anyway? Great website…weird stock.<\/p>\n

The main problem? While the lion’s share of these web companies’ revenue comes from advertising, as mobile technology<\/a> advances, they’re struggling to keep pace.<\/p>\n

For example, when Facebook launched last year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his band of overzealous investors faced one glaring issue: no mobile ad revenue…at all. And the stock tanked.<\/p>\n

Oddly enough, Twitter <\/strong>faces the same issue. I say ‘oddly enough’ because Twitter isn’t supposed to have a mobile problem.<\/p>\n

Its ‘microblogging’ concept is designed specifically for tablets and smartphones, so users can give immediate commentary anywhere…anytime.<\/p>\n

But like everyone else in the social media industry, when people use Twitter’s mobile app, the company makes far less money from advertising.<\/p>\n

However, unlike everyone else, Twitter has a lesser-known side business that’s proving very lucrative…<\/p>\n

And when the company filed its S-1 last week, everyone focused on ad revenue and ignored this…<\/p>\n

Almost a year ago, Tech & Innovation Daily noted that Big Data is one of today’s seven most investable technology trends.<\/p>\n

Research firm IDC agrees. It says the Big Data market is growing seven times faster than the entire information technology sector and is on pace to be worth $16.9 billion in two years.<\/p>\n

And Twitter proves why…<\/p>\n

The company is selling its data.<\/p>\n

You see, thanks to its public, real-time data, nothing compares to Twitter. Its endless stream of news, events, trends, opinions and experiences provides a wealth of insights and opportunities.<\/p>\n

In fact, it’s spawned a vast commercial ecosystem called ‘Social Listening’.<\/p>\n

Emerging from the innovation pipeline are social data firms – companies that essentially collect, dissect and analyse information. And they’re buying Twitter’s data<\/strong> to help their clients get a leg up on the competition.<\/p>\n

Here’s How…<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

Ever wonder how Google (GOOG) ranks search queries?<\/p>\n

Or how supercomputers crunch numbers light-years faster than humans?<\/p>\n

In a word…algorithms.<\/p>\n

When it comes to processing and analysing data and calculations, computer algorithms have become critical. Especially given today’s immense (and increasing) amount of data.<\/p>\n

Just ask the clients of social data-mining<\/strong> firms.<\/p>\n

Companies like DirecTV (DTV).<\/p>\n

Let’s say there’s a service outage in a certain area. Rather than wait for an onslaught of calls and complaints, DTV can use Twitter’s social data analysis to stay ahead of the problem.<\/p>\n

It’s certainly not the only one…<\/p>\n