Although many people talk about big data these days only a few truly understand its potential and actively make use of the related technologies in their businesses, due largely to expensive costs to build and manage infrastructure.

Businesses that have swiftly adopted the emerging technology often pose a formidable challenge to leading market players.

Video-streaming platform Netflix is a great exemplar as it has successfully integrated big data systems in its streaming services to meticulously analyze what customers want -- their favorite actors and movie genres et al.

The video-streaming business model leveraging a vast trove of data on customers has helped the California-based firm not only rake in larger revenues but also attracts top-notch big data experts, or data scientists, which consequently offers it a more competitive edge over other traditional video content and services providers, like Warner Bros.

A key to Netflix’s game-winning strategy is big data, according to Hiro Yoshikawa, chief executive of big data solution developer Treasure Data.

“Netflix knows everything (about customers),” he said in an interview with The Korea Herald last week.

“Traditional companies like Disney or Nintendo, on the other hand, have a hard time to attract data talents. They don’t have any in-house experts in data analytics, but they have to fight back against the likes of Netflix, Hulu and Zynga,” said the CEO, emphasizing the need for collaboration with outside big data solutions providers to get ahead in the game.

Afraid of being left behind, more global companies are partnering with big data services providers like Treasure Data.

The Silicon Valley-headquartered firm, founded in 2011, now provides its big data services to more than 100 companies around the world, including smart fitness tracker maker Pebble, the world’s largest mobile shopping mall Wish, mobile advertising platform MobFox, and Japanese automotive infotainment firm Pioneer. Warner Bros.’ gaming division also recently started working with Treasure Data.

Treasure Data has raised $30 million in venture funding from high-profile investors including Jerry Yang, the cofounder of Internet portal Yahoo, and James Lindenbaum, the cofounder of cloud application platform Heroku.

Of the more than 200 big data companies that made a pitch for funding to Lindenbaum, Treasure Data was the first to receive investment.

“Jerry is pitched by more than 10 companies a day and he only invests in a few, considering that, we were very lucky,” he said.

The growth of the firm appears to be based not only on luck but also on its expertise in delivering all-in-one data analytic services, which help a company to collect, store and process data.

The company’s big data solutions currently analyze 22 trillion pieces of information and 800,000 data records per second are being added to the systems.

It usually takes at least two years for a business to build big data infrastructure, but it takes just two weeks and requires one data scientist who can handle the structure query language -- a programming language for managing data -- with Treasure Data’s solutions.

The global big data technology and services market is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 23.1 percent from 2014 to 2019, according to market research firm IDC.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)