What Is Data Marketplace?

Data marketplaces are a lot like the internet. They've been around for almost as long as data has. They've been around since before data was even invented. No, really! Remember that time when you were a kid, and you'd go to the grocery store with your mom, and she'd say, "Oh, look at this avocado! It's so ripe!" then you'd go home and look up what an avocado was on Wikipedia? That was a data marketplace! It wasn't just avocados. It was everything: milk prices, the weather, how much people liked each other… everything that could be measured or counted had its little data marketplace. Then something happened: technology happened. with it came the internet and all its many wonders, including the ability to buy and sell information about yourself online for money (which is weird). So now we're in an era where people are making money by selling their personal information online, and some might even argue that this isn't such a bad thing! Data marketplaces, sometimes called data exchanges, are a relatively new way to sell data. The idea of data marketplaces is that they allow you to set up your own seller's account and then list the types of data you're willing to sell. The buyer then chooses which data to purchase from you, and you both agree on a price for the information. Data marketplaces are made up of two: a platform that allows sellers and buyers to connect and buy or sell their information; and a database that holds all the information about who's selling what and how much they're asking for it. When someone buys something on a data marketplace, the money goes directly into the seller's account without going through any middleman like PayPal or Venmo, which means more money in your pocket!