Infomediary activity is not classified as such in the CNAE. Therefore, the census of companies must be updated through indirect and ad hoc actions. Periodically, the National Observatory of Telecommunications and the Information Society (ONTSI) analyzes the state of this sector and collects the results in a report, which this year reaches its fifth edition.

Under the title "From Infomediary Sector to Economy Data. Characterization of the Infomediate Sector", this year's report starts from a new approach, more aligned with the European Union's vision. The document highlights that the infomediate sector is evolving towards the data economy, and takes as a reference the words of the European Commission, which defines "data companies" as "organizations whose main activity is to produce products, services and technologies related to data".

A sustainable sector in continuous growth

This year's report shows us that we are facing a sector that does not stop growing in a sustainable way. 708 companies have been identified, 32% more than in 2016. It is worth noting that the businesses that are created around this activity last over time, since 63.7% of the companies analyzed are more than 10 years old. The sector is mainly concentrated in Madrid, where more than 50% of the companies are located. It is followed by Catalonia, with 18.4%.

In recent years there has been an evolution towards businesses centred on digital technologies: the most recent companies are mainly in the field of programming and IT consultancy and information services.

73.5% of the companies carry out more than one infomediaries activity, although the one that attracts more business in data analysis and/or visualization.

Almost 50% of these companies are micro-enterprises (with less than 10 employees) and only 6% have more than 250 employees. The turnover of the sector, however, is not negligible, estimated to reach 1,987 million euros in 2018, 15.4% more than in 2015. Of this volume, 718 million come from the reuse of information.

With regard to employment, in recent years there has been significant growth. The sector employs between 14,000 and 16,000 people, 14.3% more than in 2016. If we focus only on employees linked to data reuse, the growth is even more spectacular, 61.5%, reaching 7,700-8,400 workers. 

Traditionally, the distribution of employment by gender in the infomediate sector has been equal (49.9% women and 50.1% men). However, the progressive introduction of digital technologies is breaking this parity in favor of men. Newer (and more technological) companies have many more men than women on their staff.

1 in 5 companies uses data from public sources

More than 80% of the companies analyzed use data from public sources to develop these services, which are combined with private data in 69.9% of the cases. The most demanded public information belongs to the fields of trade, environment, economy and demography. They mainly access this data in non-proprietary structured formats (csv, xml), although it is worth noting that there are still many suppliers that provide their data without structure (pdf, jpg), making it difficult to process automatically.

When asked about the data they most miss, the companies surveyed indicated that they would like to have more data on weather, real-time transport, tourism, demographics (with information disaggregated at the level of census sections), justice at the regional and local level, the public sector, the economy and the treasury.

These are just some of the report's conclusions, but there are many more. You can download the full report and its presentation below.

In addition to the fourth edition of the Report on Infomediary Sector Characterization, the Ministry of Energy, Tourism and Digital Agenda and the Ministry of Finance and Public Function - under the direction of the Evaluation Area of the National Observatory of Telecommunications and the Information Society (ONTSI)- has published for the first time a report on success stories and best practices in the re-use of public information.

The aim of this document is to provide a more tangible vision of infomediary companies in Spain through the quantitative analysis of their activities, drawing conclusions and examples of successful projects that, thanks to the development of innovative services based on public information, stand out for their innovation, effectiveness and sustainability, becoming possible models to follow.

Selection and analysis methodology of PSI best practices

Based on the trade census used in the sector characterization, a business segmentation has been made according to the sectors and subsectors to which the companies belong.

Moreover, the company classification depending on the information re-used has been taken into account, but also its activity from the point of view of the added value generated in the market (value chain) in order to obtain the maximum representativeness in the cases analysed for each segment.

From each segment, the companies that at least meet two of the following requirements have been selected:

● Innovation: having an innovative service or product, either by its nature or by its application

● Efficiency: significant turnover related to the infomediary activity of the company.

● Sustainability: at least 2 years working in the sector to enable the project sustainability.

● Replicable model: service or product that other companies may incorporate into their activities.

After several rounds of analysis, and according to the above criteria, 11 companies were chosen for publication because of their special relevance.

Conclusions drawn from the success stories

After the detailed analysis of infomediary companies, it has been possible to draw a set of conclusions that allow a qualitative characterization of the sector in Spain. Thus, one of the aspects in common for all the projects in the report is the deep knowledge of the sectors in which they operate. This expertise has allowed them to identify a need in the market and, through the re-use of information, to launch innovative products or services that positively impact on society. In fact, an important part of their success lies in the level of expertise on which their business strategy is based.

Regularly, the Ministries of Energy, Tourism and Digital Agenda and Internal Revenue Service & Public Administrations, through the National Observatory of Telecommunications & the Information Society (ONTSI), publish a report on the characterization of the Spanish infomediary sector. A document that analyses in detail the activities and impact of an industry that, only in 2015, generated a turnover between 600 and 750 million euros.

The fourth edition of this report was recently published, which collects data from 652 infomediary companies in 2015. The report deals with companies specialized in the development of apps, products and added value services based on the re-use of public and private information, data which is obtained through the review of secondary sources, including public data providers and the Trade Registry.

This is a booming industry whose volume of activity has increased 46% and, moreover, according to the information contained in the report, has grown 10% in comparison with 2014.This figure reaches 63% if the tendency is analysed since the date when the report was published for the first time, in the year 2011.

Origin of the re-used information

82% of companies in the infomediary sector re-use public information, coming almost exclusively (96%) from national sources such as the National Statistics Institute, the Official State Bulletin, the National Geographic Institute, the Trade Registry and the State Meteorology Agency, among others. In the case of foreign information, the European Union is the main data provider (69%) along with other international organizations (63%), followed by administrations outside the EU (57%) and universities (23%).

It is important to highlight the role of open data within the sector, as the number of companies re-using information in open format has increased with respect to the previous study, reaching 69% of the total. Nevertheless, 68% of the sector still has to make specific requests because the information they require is not available.

Barriers and opportunities for re-use

The re-use of information, regardless of the source from which it comes, enables the creation of value added products and services, and is a great asset to boost the economy, employment and the progress of the knowledge society, especially in the area of Smart cities and social data. Nevertheless, the ONTSI study identifies as the main obstacle to infomediary activity the lack of homogeneity of information at regional and local level, this being an additional barrier to the following demands:

● Greater proactivity in the management of the information of the Public Administration information, promoting open data by default.

●  Development of ICT tools that facilitate the automation of the processes of access, refinement, treatment, enrichment and analysis of public data.

● Improved availability and quality of public data, promoting open reusable formats, interoperability and ensuring access to information.

● Promotion of public-private collaboration for the development of the infomediary market

As regards the future of the sector, companies refer to a wide range of possibilities linked to the development of products or services focussed on real-time decision-making, based on social network analysis, and data from Smart Cities, and  new tools that allow the automated data management and interpretation. In this sense, the advance in the big data movement and the tools for their exploitation and support will be key elements for the future development of the sector.

This report falls within the scope of actions aimed at encouraging the openness of public sector information and favouring its re-use, one of the most relevant lines of action in recent years of Red.es, implemented through the Aporta Initiative. Thus the 2016 edition of the Report on the Infomediary Sector Characterization provides greater knowledge about the activity of this industry, incorporating new aspects compared with previous documents by performing a systematic analysis of the sector, regardless of the origin of the re-used information, and including a set of good practices of infomediary companies from which recommendations can be made that help other projects in the sector.

Thanks to the reuse of public sector information, new businesses and new business models are beginning to emerge. But, for that, public entities have to open the data they store and place them at the service of the society. According to the Characterization Study of the Infomediary Sector, in 2014 the financial turnover of infomediary businesses in Spain was from 450 to 500 million euros and the sector provided for approximately 4200 to 4700 jobs. In fact, the economic potential of open data and big data in Europe is 200000 million euros and in USA seven sectors alone could generate more than $3 trillion a year in additional value as a result of open data.

The economic value of the open data is already a reality. It has become the raw material for agriculture, nutrition or health sectors; boosting employment, providing services tailored to the society needs and developing innovative solutions. Open data is so important that, in the 4^th International Open Data Conference, a panel was dedicated to the business models based on open data. The conference was the appropriate event to present the Open Data Impact Map. This initiative is a searchable, centralized database of open data cases from all around the world. Still in beta, this map will be the Open Data 500 successor.

Over the last few years the health sector has focused on open data to reduce costs, increase revenues, save time and improve medical diagnosis. Mastondon C is an excellent example. This startup has been working with Open Healthcare UK on NHS prescriptions; reusing PSI to save millions of pounds on medical prescriptions. 

The scientific community is also aware of the importance of open data; not only to develope news product and services but to be sure about the integrity of any investigation or health advance. After all, if we have access to the data, we can evaluate the effectiveness of treatments and the fairness of medial studies.

Thanks to the data re-use, Google created the web service Google Dengue Trends; a near real-time tool which worked by capturing disease-related queries typed into Google and displaying a map indicating dengue activity. Though the map is disabled, the historic estimates produced by Google Dengue Trends are available to being reused by any user.

By information sharing and extracting data, technological advances has made them much easier.  Agricultural and environmental sectors have made use of leading-edge technology to create new business opportunities. The UK government has unleashed 1000 farming datasets to boost the national farming productivity and help business and consumers decision-making. The data will be used to improve the quality of crop yields and deal with disease outbreaks. This is what Plantwise offers. This programme is a global resource to increase food security and improve rural livelihoods by reducing crop losses.

Together with GODAN (Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition), Open Data Institute has published a discussion paper where they show how open data is a powerful tool being used to solve problems in agriculture such as drought, pests or food security.

Another noteworthy initiative is Foodie Project: an European platform hub on the cloud where data related to agricultural and farming sector are stored from open data portals and sensors located in crops and farms. This infrastructure integrates different datasets and provides high-value applications for the support of farmers and stockmen.

Analysis tools, food products, eHealth apps… There are as many business opportunities based on open data as datasets. The key issue is to identify the needs and create solutions that transform the public or private information into added value services.

Tags: open data, agriculture sector, health sector, Foodie, GODAN, ODI, Plantwise, Google Dengue Trends, Mastodon C, infomediary sector