10th edition of Asedie's Infomediary Sector Report available

ASEDIE (the Multisectoral Information Association) has just published a new edition of its Infomediary Sector Report, which analyses the real, economic and social value of companies reusing data from the public and/or private sector to develop value-added products. The presentation took place at an event at the National Geographic Institute, in which the Data Office also participated.

This year is special because the report is in its 10th edition. Throughout these years, the different reports have shown the growth and consolidation of the sector.  Specifically, for this edition, 701 companies have been identified, which represents a growth of 58% compared to the first report, produced in 2013. However, the figure is very similar to that already analysed in 2021.

This year's edition is subtitled "Data Economy in the Infomediary". The data economy already plays a major role in European production ecosystems and is expected to continue to grow: by 2025, it is estimated that it will contribute 4% of GDP.

In this context, ASEDIE has set among its objectives not only to promote the infomediary sector and the Data Economy, but also to contribute to raising public awareness of its benefits. To this end, it has prepared this report with various indicators that show the impact of the sector.

Main findings of the report

Below is a breakdown of the main conclusions drawn from the report:

• The 10th edition of the report shows a turnover of more than €2 billion, offering employment to almost 23,000 professionals.

• 44% of the infomediary companies surveyed use AI to create value-added products or as a tool. 72% of respondents claim to use both public and private data for the creation of their products and/or services. On the other hand, 17% of the companies indicate that they only use private information compared to 11% that only use public data.

• There are 3 sectors that continue to account for most of the activity, with geographic information standing out. The majority of infomediaries specialise in "geographic information" (24%), "market research" (20%) and the "economic and financial" sub-sector (19%).

• Only two of the subsectors account for almost half of total sales (49%): "Geographic information" and "Economic and financial". However, "Publishing", despite being the 6th sector in terms of number of companies, is the one with the highest average sales (€6M) and median (€917,000). Regarding the latter, it practically doubles the next most important sector ("Directoriales"), which has a value of around €503,000, well above the rest of the sectors.

• Most of the companies are located in the Community of Madrid (38%), Catalonia (13%) and Andalusia (11%). As in previous years, the Infomediary Sector is represented in all the Autonomous Communities.

• 71% of the infomediary companies have been created less than 20 years ago. Of these, 36% are between 11 and 20 years old and 35% are less than 10 years old. The average age continues to be 16 years, with the Publishing subsector being the oldest and the Tourism subsector the youngest.

• The average number of employees per company in the Infomediary Sector is 43, reaching 22,638 employees. As in turnover, the subsector with the highest figure is "geographic information" with 30% of the total.

• The aggregate subscribed capital reached 273,789,439 €, which represents a decrease of 12.2% with respect to the previous edition. Furthermore, the three most capitalised subsectors are "market research", "economic and financial" and "geographic information".

• The net profit generated this year exceeds 110 million euros, which represents a slight decrease compared to the previous year. "Culture" and "Directories" were the only two sub-sectors whose companies did not make a positive profit this year.

• The report identifies the opening of new public sources, the digitisation of the public sector and the interoperability of sources as the main challenges to be addressed. The updating and quality of information are some of the barriers to access and reuse of information.

• 94% of respondents see the creation of the Data Office as an opportunity for the geospatial sector. They expect this body to help in the coordination, centralisation and integration of data, and to promote openness and homogenisation of the availability of public sources.

Top 3 ASEDIE and success stories

The report includes a review of the status of the Top 3 Asedie, ASEDIE's initiative to promote the complete opening of three datasets by all Autonomous Communities, following unified criteria that facilitate their reuse. In 2019, the opening of the Cooperatives, Associations and Foundations databases was proposed. The initiative was a success, and all Communities have now opened at least two of the three proposed databases. This initiative is included in Commitment 9 of the 4th Open Government Plan.

Given the good reception, a new Top 3 was launched in 2020, aimed at those Autonomous Communities that had already opened the first three databases, so that they could continue to advance in the opening of new datasets relating to: Register of Energy Efficiency Certificates, Industrial Estates and SAT Registers (Agricultural Transformation Companies). The evolution in the opening of these databases in the last year has also been remarkable, as shown in the following image.

The report concludes with several success stories of infomediary companies and examples of the products and services they produce, such as Infoempresa's web browser extension for obtaining business information or Axesor's platform (Investiga Pro) that allows online consultation of the Real Property Databases of both the Commercial Registry and the General Council of Notaries.

The report is available on Asedie's website in Spanish together with the video of the presentation of the report. It will soon be available in English together with an executive summary in French and Portuguese.

In conclusion, the sector is in good health, but this year has shown a slight decrease of 4.6% in times of pandemic. However, these figures are above the Spanish average (Spain's GDP fell by almost 10% in the same period). Although 55% of respondents have noticed the effect of Covid-19 on companies' or citizens' access to their data, the fact that 92% of respondents say they are satisfied with the level of digitisation available to them gives hope for improved results in the near future.