Informally vs Data Marketplaces: What are the differences?

A major issue faced by many organisations when using a data marketplace is the lack of control over how the data is published. Once it is uploaded to the platform, the data is typically grouped in with everything else. This makes it more difficult to highlight the features and benefits of the datasets, which can quickly become lost amongst competing providers.

Informally overcomes that issue by giving you full control over how you publish your data. After all, it is your data, so you should have the final say over how your audience is able to interact with it. You can upload the data in any format and via any data feed, and once inside your data sharing platform, sellers have full autonomy over how they design and market its presentation.

Buyers using data marketplaces are often concerned about the quality of the data that is on offer. Datasets can be inaccurate, out of date or contain biases, which can ultimately impact decision making. And because sellers are unable to properly brand and customise their data as products, it becomes more of a challenge to highlight the differentials.

The branding and customisation tools made available in our data sharing platform reduces those concerns due to the many ways you can trade your datasets. To overcome issues related to data quality, you can offer free trials that will allow users to get a first-hand view on its condition before they commit to a full purchase.

Pricing is not always clear on data marketplaces, which can cause confusion and make it difficult to calculate the real value and ROI. There have been occasions where buyers run into hidden fees that were not first mentioned in the listing, which can cause further frustration.

Transparency is essential to building trust with any audience, which is why you will have complete control over your pricing and the way users can interact with your products. You can offer one-off payments or monthly subscriptions – or set up special offers and discounts to encourage more trade. Or if you simply want to offer the data for free, you can easily set that up in your fully branded data sharing platform.

Security can be a difficult issue to overcome on data marketplaces, especially when it comes to sensitive datasets. Buyers often seek alternative ways to access important data that will not compromise security and logging into and downloading from a data marketplace can increase the risk of breaches.

The safest way to ensure your data reaches your audience without compromising the security of the data is to provide it through an API. Informally has connectors for most standard SQL and NoSQL database engines, connectors for many well-known APIs and for custom-built APIs. It means users can connect with your data directly via their own software, so they never have to worry about going through a third-party.