Making Profit from Data in Europe – Techbytes

How to Make Profit from Data in Europe

Data is a lifeline that most businesses hang on to. Why? Each derives measurable economic value from data both directly and indirectly. Directly by using customer data to drive revenue and cut costs. 

So, what does it mean to derive profit from data? Many businesses now know the importance of having access to relevant data, and there has been an increase in the rate at which many of them are investing in these technologies. Data use is growing so fast that keeping track of its growth is not easy anymore. Now that so many businesses are into it, it is no longer seen as an idea, but as a necessity in their upkeep.

A plan was set up in Brussels by the EU's new head of data and industry policy to ensure that European companies have a greater edge above their Chinese and America, which is for the companies to better capitalize on the electronic information they generate. The new aim is to figure out home-grown companies can make money from data. This came as a result of their inability to support and host digital companies. In 2016, Spotify threatened to move to the United States. How do they intend to do this? They want to evaluate how data are created, and how they use them. Companies in the European Union will be helped on how they should capitalize on the electronic information they generate.

There have always been questions on how those big companies have been using data. In 2018, certain regulation was approved by the European Union to give users a better say over their data, this was called the General Data Protection Rule (GDPR). This led to them open an investigation on Google and Facebook data practices, to access if these two American tech companies are in compliance with the rules established in that region. This initiative simply means that US tech companies are not allowed free access to data of users in the EU. The tech giant in the US now faces different issues from countries in the EU, they are monitored on how they store and utilize user's data, and apart from that, they are also a critical observation on their operation in that region and the amount of tax they pay.

This initiative will create restrictions on how US tech companies like Facebook, Google, Microsoft, etc, operate in European countries. Two major cases that had been dealt with was Google fined for breaking rules, and Apple asked to pay unpaid taxes to Ireland. Countries are also looking into plans to set up and impose a digital tax; Italy and France had already established their own tax for digital companies, while other countries are still discussing it. With this increase in taxes, there will be lesser margins for these tech companies in the EU region.