Our platform features more than 1.9k data providers and 2.3k unique datasets, covering 20 data types across various regions. Across that catalogue, emerging alt data markets in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America comprise 52.12% of our coverage, as of the end of 2023.

Shifting preferences

Consumer, transactional and clickstream data are always popular in emerging alt data markets thanks to large panel sizes and long histories, which make it easy for investors to find strong signals. But we’re seeing a growing level of maturity in markets such as China, where buyers are using alt data to uncover insights into sectors such as semiconductors and auto manufacturing.

We’re also seeing the adoption of alt data by a broader range of users, which is driving some shifts in purchasing preferences. One of the most notable trends we saw in 2023 was a strong growth in interest among private market investors. As the market moves away from its earlier focus on quant-friendly, model-ready data products, this is leading to a greater diversity of data products.

For example, healthcare stood out as an increasingly popular sector during the past year. However, this is barely reflected in the emerging alt data regions. This is partly due to a lack of relevant vendors in these regions. Healthcare investment tends to be highly concentrated in the US, of course, but drug development and private insurance are growing in markets such as India and China.

In the quant space, where returns are increasingly difficult to find, investors are adopting more sophisticated approaches and developing models that can generate signals with even with shorter historical data.

Pricing

While data products exhibit regional price variations, overall we observe that price does not directly influence buyers’ adoption decisions. There are several potential reasons for this:

• Product pricing is falling in more mature regions, sectors and data types due to heated competition. As long as the price is not outrageous, data buyers may care more about value-add.
• Providers may hide or offer excessively broad/inaccurate pricing to Neudata. Consequently, we found no significant correlation with actual purchasing patterns.