Nowadays, people use Google Maps to navigate a route or, on lazy weekends, do “Netflix and chill,” having very little idea that all these come under the realm of datafication. From regular communications to intricate business operations, from smart home to streaming devices, datafication improves utility and productivity in ways we often take for granted. It is a major and wide term in today’s digital world. Although datafication is very closely intertwined in our lives, not many people know what datafication is and how it’s making a difference in our lives.
As the global data volume is projected to reach 181 zettabytes by 2025, through using social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook (Meta), and others, the demand for taking and quantifying activities, behaviors, and communications is increasing. This whole process is known as datafication. This blog will provide a deeper analysis of how datafication is changing the way businesses work. Read along to perform entrepreneurship better.
Datafication: The Future of Business
Datafication, the technique of collecting and assessing data to acquire insights to make better decisions, is a boon for businesses. Understanding customers’ behavior better and providing solutions accordingly is what a business needs to thrive, and datafication gives exactly that. Datafication presents significant opportunities for business holders, whether to foster growth and innovation or to provide an additional competitive edge. Here are a few factors that an entrepreneur needs to know about datafication to give their business a futuristic edge.
1. Enhanced Decision-making
Wanna know the customer better? There is nothing that can help more than datafication. It helps in better comprehension of the customers’ needs, market trends, and business operations. These insights support better, tailor-made decision-making. Netflix, a prominent internet streaming media provider, exemplifies the process of datafication. It operates in over 40 countries and serves 33 million streaming subscribers. Netflix leverages datafication to tailor recommendations, enhance content acquisition, and analyze user behavior, resulting in an improved streaming experience and heightened engagement.
2. Enhance Efficiency
Daily Harvest Inc., a U.S.-based meal delivery service, recently started using AI strategies in March 2025 to streamline its operations. Similarly, a major European grocery company, Colruyt Group, is leveraging digital technologies to enhance its operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. All these are instances of how datafication can actively boost the work efficiency of any company. Datafication enables organizations to enhance operational efficiency, lower expenses, and boost productivity through task automation and improved resource management.
3. Provide a Better Competitive Edge
A news of May 2025 coming from the banking sector can give you a better example that datafication is not restricted to one domain. nCino, Inc., a major banking solution provider, started using new AI-powered innovations at its annual nSight Conference to provide leverage to customers as AI becomes embedded across all its solutions. These facilities make the company superior to its contemporaries.
A Country-Wise Analysis of the Datafication Landscape
Collecting data and analyzing them not only entails businesses the insight also it leverages multiple other industries, and it even supports in the robust development of a country. Thus, understanding the importance of various countries incorporating datafication systems by enhancing infrastructure, through various government initiatives, and sector-specific improvements. Here is a brief description of how some key countries are incorporating datafication in different domains.
- United States: Nielsen, a leading company in audience measurement, data, and analytics, recently released its seventh Annual Marketing Report, where it mentioned marketers are taking actionable steps to incorporate AI to transform and adapt recent market trends. In 2022, businesses that depended on government data contributed USD 750 billion to the national economy in the US, signifying the importance of data in the US economy.
- Europe: Europe’s data economy is projected to exceed €550 billion by 2025, accounting for 4% of the nation’s GDP. Inculcating provides great leverage in the efficiency of any sector and also helps in cost-cutting. For example, the use of data analytics and AI in healthcare saves around €120 billion and provides 10-20% savings in the transport and construction industry.
- India: Many have little to almost no idea about how big the Indian data center industry is. Furthermore, India is one of the major data center hubs in the Asia-Pacific region with a capacity of 950 MW in 2024, which is projected to touch 1,800 MW by 2026. The IT-BPM industry of India accounted for 7.4% of the GDP and garnered USD 253.9 billion in 2024.
- China: Digitalization is entering every nook and corner of China. A closer look at China’s produced data demonstrated that this country produced 32 zettabytes of data in 2023. China is also leading in data transactions, which is projected to reach a revenue of ¥500 billion by 2030.
- Japan: Japan is known for its technological advancements, and it is often said that Japan lives ahead of time. This is because they have digitalized every aspect of life. In fact, Japan established a digital agency in 2024 to reinforce its digital efforts nationwide and allotted a budget of ¥36.8 billion. Japan’s smart government industry will garner a significant amount of more than USD 5.02 billion by the end of 2030.
These figures demonstrate the key role of government initiatives and policies that pave the path for the datafication industry.
Final Thoughts
Datafication is going to transform the destiny of the future business world, presenting an array of benefits to enterprises to optimize operational efficiency. The future is the era of data analytics, and the companies that incorporate datafication and harness its potential will undoubtedly gain a significant competitive edge.
