The worldwide data monetization market is expected to reach $1.7 trillion by 2028. With such a large growth opportunity, millions of businesses are looking for solutions to help them capture their fair share. These forward-thinking organizations are discovering what they are looking for in data monetization platforms.‍

A data monetization platform is a software tool that helps you extract the most value from your data assets. There are several methods to approach this. Let’s take a look at the many methods of monetizing data.

The most straightforward method of monetizing data is to sell it to third parties. Hundreds of organizations have adopted this as their principal business model, while countless others have begun selling internal data to generate additional money. A second method of monetizing data is to examine your internal data in order to enhance your operations and increase your bottom line.

Your company’s data can indicate opportunities to reduce expenses and increase efficiency in sales, operations, procurement, marketing, and other areas. A third type of data monetization is data governance, which includes data enrichment, cleansing, and hygiene. The higher the quality of your data, the greater its monetary value. Aside from being excellent housekeeping, clearing and improving your data is beneficial to your financial account.

What is a Data Monetization Platform?

As we have seen, data monetization might include selling data, analyzing data, and cleaning and enhancing data. There are platforms that enable each of these types of data monetization, typically in conjunction with one another. What these platforms have in common is that they want to help you get the most out of your data assets.

In this post, we will look at some of the most popular data monetization systems on the market today. We’ll go over how the platform operates, describe its key data monetization capabilities, and analyze the advantages and downsides. We hope it will assist you in selecting the best platform for your data monetization needs, regardless of where you are in your path.

Best Data Monetization Platforms

1. Data Commerce Cloud

Data Commerce Cloud (DCC) allows you to post and sell your data goods in the most popular data markets with a single click. DCC is linked with popular data exchanges such as Google Cloud Analytics Hub, Databricks Marketplace, Datarade Marketplace, and SAP Datasphere Marketplace. It is the greatest linked data monetization platform, trusted by over 100 prominent commercial data suppliers.

Main features

• No-code channel integrations: DCC is integrated with the largest data marketplaces so data providers can increase their visibility on and receive leads from top data sales channels.
• Lead pool: DCC is the only data monetization platform that enables you to tap into a lead pool of in-market data providers that have posted their requests for data on Datarade Marketplace.
• Product analytics: analyze how your data products are performing in terms of conversion, impressions and revenue, and receive optimization reports to capture more demand.

Pros

• Save time and money engineering: publishing on data marketplaces can take months and require masses of engineering resources. DCC enables you to publish on marketplaces with a click and no engineering resources are needed.
• Designed for commercial data providers: DCC is a data monetization platform designed for data marketers and sales people and its sole focus is one empowering companies to monetize data and generate revenue.
• Demand for every category of external data: whether you’re monetizing healthcare data, B2B data, real estate data, or a different category entirely, there’s demand for it from buyers on DCC’s integrated data marketplaces.

Cons

• Creating data products isn’t instantaneous: to optimize your data products for conversion, you need to invest some time in putting the right keywords on and uploading samples to your listings on DCC.
• Data delivery not yet supported: DCC will support cross-cloud data sharing towards the end of 2024.
• Payment handled off platform: because ticket sizes for data are often too much for a credit card to process, DCC requires providers to arrange payment with the buyer outside of the platform and log the transaction manually.

2. Revelate

Revelate’s platform, which was founded in 2012, allows for the smooth buying, selling, and exchange of data assets via a centralized marketplace. Revelate, which focuses on privacy protection and advanced analytics capabilities, enables customers to gain useful insights while assuring the secure monetization of their data.

Main features

• External data marketplace: Revelate offers a central hub where consumers can purchase your data assets.
• Advanced product analytics: provides powerful tools for deriving insights and optimizing monetization strategies.
• Data governance framework: ensures compliance with regulations and standards while facilitating transparent data transactions and fostering trust among users.

Pros

• Flexibility: publish your ready-for-sale datasets in multiple formats (CSV, API, others) with customizable pricing.
• Privacy protection: prioritizes robust encryption and anonymization to safeguard sensitive data.
• Customer support: get the tools and best practices guidance you need, even if you’re unsure of your monetization potential.

Cons

• Not suitable for marketers: Revelate doesn’t list marketing as a function its data monetization platform is aimed at, so it’s less suited for companies looking to build visibility for their data business.
• No in-platform payment: Revelate integrates with your billing system but doesn’t process the transaction itself.
• Little buy-side experience: as a platform solely for data monetization, Revelate has less hands-on experience with companies buying data in comparison to other platforms.

3. ThinkData Works

Since 2014, ThinkData Works has been producing industry-leading technology designed by data experts for data professionals. They hit the nail on the head when they say that ‘when data is easy to distribute, it’s easier to monetize. As a result, ThinkData Group’s data monetization platform enables you to maximize the value of your data through improved governance and simplified delivery to paying end users.

Main features

1. Data delivery: securely send data where it needs to be using granular controls and export restrictions to control who uses what data and how.
2. Tap into existing demand: start selling without a long ramp-up time by tapping into the lead pool of companies sourcing data on ThinkData Works, which includes some of the largest financial, insurance, consulting, and pharmaceutical enterprises globally.
3. Extracting more value from data: the platform monitors your data freshness, automates cleansing, and enables enrichment by letting you combine your own datasets, or add outside data sources to build unique data products tailored to your audience.

Pros

• Security first: ThinkData Works puts security at the fore of data sharing and monetization
• All-in-one platform: from connecting your datasets or ingesting them via ETL, all the way to delivery to the end user, without leaving the platform
• Scalable selling via automated delivery: set up repeatable delivery automations which reduce delay and human error

Cons

• Pricing: subscriptions to ThinkData Works are at the higher end of data monetization platforms, and this pricing could be inaccessible for small companies with little budget.
• First-and-foremost a catalog software: ThinkData Works’ emphasis isn’t on monetization solely.
• Integration: integrating ThinkData Works’ platform with existing systems and workflows may pose challenges, particularly for organizations with complex IT infrastructures or legacy software.

4. Harbr

Harbr allows enterprises to create their own data marketplaces. The Harbr platform is built on an architecture that prioritizes data exchange and commerce while balancing cost, convenience, and control. It drives the data commerce platform experiences of some of the world’s most successful data organizations, who use Harbr for data discovery, collaboration, and monetization.

Main features

• Customisable product creation: 53% of products created on Harbr are customized, in recognition of the endless number of various use cases data consumers have.
• Data product iteration: prototype, test and iterate based on user feedback gathered from secure collaboration to create more attractive data products.
• Automated data distribution: via external data sharing Snowflake, S3, GCP, Azure Blob, on-prem, and desktop.

Pros

• Conversion-optimized data marketplaces: it’s easy for consumers to find your data with search, filters, categories, and recommenders.
• Governance and access control: data-driven companies share data across technical and organizational boundaries securely.
• Cloud-agnostic: data is immediately available in your own private cloud, allowing you to take full advantage of your existing cloud commitments.

Cons

• Emphasis on discovery and collaboration: Harbr emphasizes that its platform facilitates data collaboration; monetization is a secondary service.
• Not designed for sellers: in comparison to other data monetization platforms, Harbr isn’t so easy for people without a technical background to use and lacks sales features e.g. a deal pipeline.
• No in-platform payment: the Harbr subscription engine integrates with CRM, billing, and invoice systems. However, data products are usually too expensive for credit card transactions, and as a result, payments are typically handled off-platform.

The optimal data monetization platform is determined by your unique requirements, objectives, and data kind. Consider the platform’s data integration, analytics, security, and compliance capabilities, as well as its suitability for your company model and target audience. It is critical to assess multiple platforms and select the one that most closely matches your needs.

How to Monetize Your Data Effectively

By following this step-by-step method, you’ll be well on your way to realizing the full value of your data and generating new revenue streams for your company.

Read Also: The Role of Data Analytics in Monetization

Step 1: Analyze and Visualize Your Data with Internal Platforms

Begin by using your internal platforms to better understand what your data can accomplish for potential clients. Perhaps you can develop interactive dashboards to uncover trends (using your BI tool), patterns, and insights in your data. Gaining a better grasp of your data can allow you to find valuable monetization options. Furthermore, these platforms frequently include collaboration tools that allow teams to work together and make more educated data-driven decisions.

Step 2: Streamline Your Data Management with Data Integration and Transformation Solutions

Effective data monetization requires high-quality, well-organized data. Data management tools such as Airbyte, dbt, and Fivetran can assist you in integrating, cleaning, and transforming your data so that it is suitable for monetization. These solutions simplify the process of gathering data from multiple sources, assuring consistency and accuracy, which is critical for monetization initiatives. They also allow you to set up data transformation pipelines that will prepare your data for analysis and visualization in dashboarding systems.

Step 3: Embed Analytics into Your Products with Embedded Analytics Solutions

Embedded analytics products, such as Veezoo’s Embedded Analytics, allow you to integrate data analytics directly into existing products or services. This allows you to deliver important insights to your clients, improve their experience, and create new monetization options. Embedded analytics solutions allow you to design custom, branded analytics interfaces that easily integrate with your product or service, providing an extra value proposition to your customers.

Step 4: Store and Organize Your Data with Data Warehouses

Data warehouses, such as BigQuery, Redshift, and Snowflake, enable you to securely store large amounts of data and provide the infrastructure to support your monetization efforts as they expand. Once you’ve identified monetization opportunities and integrated analytics into your products or services, it’s critical to store your data efficiently.

Step 5: Continuously Evaluate and Optimize Your Data Monetization Efforts

Finally, remember that data monetization is a continuous process. Continuously assess your monetization efforts by tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) and making data-driven decisions to improve your strategies. As your data monetization efforts expand, make regular assessments of the tools and technology you’re employing to verify they’re still serving the demands of your clients. By remaining fluid and adaptable, you will be able to seize new opportunities and maximize the value of your data.

Starting the journey of data monetization might be overwhelming, but with the appropriate tools and a well-planned strategy, you can successfully unlock the value of your data. By following these procedures and using the right tools, you’ll be well-equipped to generate new money and improve your customers’ experiences. So, don’t wait any longer; start your data monetization journey today and reap the rewards!

Finally

You may monetize your data by first determining its value proposition and prospective application scenarios. Then, you can choose from a variety of options, including selling raw data, providing subscription-based access to data insights, delivering data analytics services, and collaborating with other enterprises on data. To protect both your data and the privacy of your clients, you must comply with data privacy legislation and implement secure data-sharing agreements.