It is important to say that innovation influences the market and its operators, especially about competition conditions.
One of the most significant technological advances relates to the possibility of capturing a huge amount of information and the rapid processing thereof (two of the main features that make up the phenomenon known as big data). This not only entails the emergence of specialised operators in these activities, but also makes a “data economy” possible.
In this regard, it expands the profitability of business models based on data and gives more strategic value to the collection thereof. The increased possibilities of obtaining revenue from the information lends greater efficiency to the strategy of setting a price of zero in one of the markets on which platform-type (two-sided) business models depend.
However, the market in which an operator offers its service at zero cost is not free from possible competition problems in parameters other than price (significantly, quality: whether understood as adequately classified information or the level of privacy offered to users).
Some of the most recent and significant changes that technology has stimulated in the economy have included the appearance of multiple operators that base their business model on the processing of information and can access it thanks to (i) increased digitisation (conversion of physical assets into information), which has enabled digital interactions (unlike physical interactions, they leave a record – information), and (ii) a large volume of information (Internet and sensors).
