Sizing “Mobile + Social” Big Data Stats

“Welcome to the Internet of Customers. Behind every app, every device, and every connection, is a customer. Billions of them. And each and every one is speeding toward the future.” Salesforce.com 

————-

Mobile and social are major data exhaust producers. Mining this data is the new frontier. Did you know that every 60 SECONDS, a tidal wave of unstructured data is being produced, consumed and archived via mobile devices.  As you read this ask yourself: what does this mean?

The smartphone has revolutionized the way we communicate, search, shop, share, purchase and stay connected. What were only concepts 10 years ago are reality today.

The smartphone industry is massive, with close to 2 billion devices shipped annually and total spending on wireless-related services of more than $1.6 trillion across the world. As mobile devices increasingly serve as the center of the consumer’s world, their importance to a range of companies is increasing.

I am convinced that analytical insights coupled with Mobile Technology (action enabler and insight consumption channel) will profoundly change consumer behavior and the basis of competition. All customer touch points (loyalty, e-mail, web, social, payments, e-commerce, coupons) are converging on the mobile phone. A whole new form of mobile customer engagement is just starting to take shape.

Companies are racing to comeup with new ways to leverage “next best action/offer” analytics in a world where customer experience is getting more complex.  Take retail for instance. In a multi-channel and multi-device world, as consumers move across channels, new techniques are needed to capture and increase conversion rate. (Conversion rate is the percentage of people who come to your website and take desired actions, such as purchasing something or requesting more information.)

Imagine this scenario…. let’s say a friend tweets about a new 60 inch Samsung smart TV they bought at Best Buy. You read the tweet, but click on the URL on the mobile device and check it out.  Even though that was the last click, what made the transaction happen was a satisfied friend posting a recommendation via social media and retrieved on a mobile device.  The ability to convert the visitor requires analytics… where they came from, what caused them to come to the site, what offer to present, etc.

Social technology adoption and usage by consumers is no longer an early adopter market — it’s a mainstream activity.  Mobile is accelerating this trend. All this means a “new customer interaction” model powered by big data is emerging.

Why is big data analytics a good lens for creating value around social:

• New data is coming across multiple dimensions – demographic, geographic, psychographic, behavioral, socialgraphics
• Business decisions approach real-time. Time available to capture data is decreasing.  Analysis of increasing data volumes have to become faster. Operational excellence requires immediate action.  Real-time capture and action is where the state of the art is.
• Coupled with mobile and cloud, it means the emergence of a new Customer Interaction Model for corporations

All this data growth and value creation trends imply that data management, Big Data and real-time analytics is  a big focus in social and mobile data going forward.  Clearly a new style of IT is emerging (see this figure from HP Analyst Briefing which conveys the computing transformation message quite well).