One of the hot topics these days is big data – and the consequences of the increasing datafication of our world for all parts of our lives, i.e. on polities, jurisdictions, societies, and markets. Regarding the latter, the key questions asked frequently both by researchers and by policy makers these days comprise: Is there anything special about markets driven by (big) data? If so, what? How important is the “big” part and what is a “data-driven” market, in the first place? What does this imply for the business models of sellers in data-driven markets? In which way, if at all, should (competition) policy react?

In “Competing with Big Data,” Christoph Schottmüller (University of Copenhagen) and I try to shed some light on these questions. A nontechnical summary of the paper recently appeared in the blog of the Data Science Center Tilburg. A summary cum further thinking (not all in line with the paper) was written by a Danish consulting firm.