HBR Insights Future of Business Boxed Set (8 Books)

13

HOW COMPANIES CAN USE THE DATA THEY COLLECT TO FURTHER THE PUBLIC GOOD

by Edward L. Glaeser, Hyunjin Kim, and Michael Luca

By the end of 2017, Yelp had amassed more than 140 million reviews of local businesses. While the company’s mission focuses on helping people find local businesses more easily, this wealth of data has the potential to serve other purposes. For instance, Yelp data might help restaurants understand which markets they should consider entering or whether to add a bar. It can help real estate investors understand where gentrification might occur. And it might help private equity firms with an interest in coffee decide whether to invest in Philz or Blue Bottle.

The potential value of the large data sets being amassed by ...