Data is not like oil, but sand.
- Data is not like oil, but sand.
- That is, individual grains of it are not valuable, but a large collection of it in one place is.
- Data gets more value the more it's aggregated, at a compounding rate.
- Both for individual users and for collections of users.
- This is why the aggregators have such large network effects.
- Via Ben Evans, from an idea by Tim O'Reilly.