Data is the lifeblood of even the most basic businesses. No wonder companies are in a race to find new, relevant data points. As such, the competition is not just about maximizing the data they possess; they also want more data to use. That is what it means to seek a competitive edge.
The search for this competitive edge drives international businesses to search out geo-restricted data in addition to the primary data obtained from their research and surveys.
The more data is available to the analysts and managers, the more likely they will discover new insights. This is why companies want to access geo-restricted data.
Read what geo-restricted and regional data mean and how a website unblocker helps companies get them.
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Business Benefits of Accessing Geo-restricted Content
Not all geo-restricted data is helpful to a business. The larger chunk of such data within a region might not overlap with the needs of the business.
However, where they do overlap, they are worth having. Data is yet-to-be-uncovered insight; all insight about one's business is always welcome. Here is why businesses go the extra mile to obtain geo-restricted data:
- Market and competitor research. Some market and competitor data are under similar location-specific restrictions. However, companies need them to plan a marketing strategy, identify market peculiarities, or even inform their product/service design.
- Product design and development. It is possible to have an idea. However, upon sufficient research, it becomes apparent that the ideal product for the problem you seek to solve looks different from what you initially thought. The same goes for service. Such realizations would only occur with access to regional data on the target market, and they can be the difference between a catastrophic failure and an undisputed success.
- Informed decision-making. The most important duty of business managers is to provide quality direction. Gone are the times when such decisions were left to the instincts of the managers alone. Nowadays, the technological explosion has brought more data to the fingertips of managers to guide their decisions. One source of such data is regional data specific to the targeted customer base.
- Expansion into new markets. This is a particular reality for international enterprises. They cannot afford to stagnate. As such, once they feel established enough in a particular market that further growth is unlikely, discussions about the next potential market start. Geo-restricted data from different regions can help the brass of a business identify which markets are viable with minimal upheaval or changes to the business model or product.
How to Access Geo-restricted Data
Geo-restricted content is not open to people outside the region who localized the data. Consequently, businesses and individuals trying to access this data online must resort to other less direct means to lay their hands on it. One such means is a website unblocker.
Web unblockers are tools that help browsers gain access to websites that are otherwise not open to them. Examples of web unblockers are Virtual Private Networks (VPN) and web proxies.
Both tools grant access to these restricted data by switching the IP addresses of their users such that they appear to be appearing from within the region where the data is accessible.
In this way, VPNs and proxies are similar to one another. However, they have a single blanket difference that sets them apart. Whereas the tunneling protocols that reroute traffic in proxies do not always have encryption for security purposes, those of VPN do.
In other words, though both types of tools alter IPs and the appearance of location to website servers, VPNs are more secure than proxies are. Some proxy providers include data encryption as part of their services.
The other way that proxies typically balance out the scales is the sheer number of available IP addresses within the pools. Some of the most reliable proxy providers grant users access to over a hundred countries and thousands of locations.
The variety of locations and addresses particularly appeal to businesses that require much data for their operation. Such businesses can afford to rotate their proxies, thus distributing the load and navigating potential IP bans.
It is worth noting that accessing the data is one thing: the businesses still need to download or collect it in a usable form. This is where web scrapers come in. With little supervision, the scrapers can automatically scrape large volumes of data in a usable format.
How Businesses Harness the Value of Geo-restricted Content
There are many use cases of geo-restricted data in business. Here are some of them:
- The use of housing, census, traffic, and amenities data to inform real estate investments.
- The use of engagement and visibility data on the internet and social media to inform content creation strategies.
- Use of restricted data to conduct population-specific research and analysis across a variety of industries
- Monitoring pricing strategies, competitor products, and buying patterns of customers within the target population.
Conclusion
There is a learning curve in using web unblockers and other tools for collecting geo-restricted data. However, successful businesses invest in in-house personnel with the expertise or persevere through the learning curve. Nothing stops other businesses (big or small) from doing the same.
Businesses that combine technical knowledge, research skills, and quality tools can take their operations to the next level with informed decisions. There is nothing stopping your business from following the path of the aforementioned successful businesses.
