Healthcare

Data monetization is promised to be the next big thing. Analysts and consultants are promising hundreds of billions in revenue (e.g., McKinsey 2016). Her excellence the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, is addressing the downside, sternly warning German industry to catch up: “If we let this element of value creation be taken out of our hands, then it will be a rude awakening for Germany as an industrial country” (Merkel 2019, link, at 13:17).

Data is promised to be the next big business (e.g., Wall 2019, Gartner 2018a). Investment banks, analysts and consultants further feed the frenzy with big revenue forecasts. In terms of data monetization opportunities, consultants McKinsey & Company estimate that car-generated data alone will be worth between US$450 billion and US$750 billion by 2030, less than two vehicle generations away (McKinsey 2016). Consumer data is already a big business today. Google and Facebook live off the data that users create on their platforms. Almost all their revenue is from advertising, selling “eyeballs” and user engagement to advertisers.

Something in the air. Municipalities are responsible for making sure there’s clean air on their streets. To do so, air quality is measured at selected locations with the aid of complex and expensive sensors and transmitted to the responsible authorities such as the state, federal government or the EU.