Tiktok Statistics For 2024: Users, Demographics, Trends

Posted on November 29, 2023 by GilPress

TikTok is currently one of the most popular social media platforms worldwide with over 1.7 billion users as of 2023. This short video-sharing tool gained massive popularity in 2020 peaking at approximately 313.5 million downloads during the first quarter.

TikTok was initially launched in 2016 for the Chinese audience but later on, Bytedance decided to roll the app to a wider audience by launching the app in various other countries including the United States, which is today the largest TikTok audience with 143.4 million users.

In this article, we are going to take an in-depth look at TikTok Statistics as of 2023 and talk about the total number of users globally, the largest age group, popular categories, and much more.

TikTok Key Statistics

  • TikTok has 150 million active monthly users in the United States. 
  • An Average TikTok user spends more than 1.5 hours each day on TikTok. 
  • Nearly half of Gen Z are utilizing TikTok and Instagram for search purposes instead of using Google search engines.
  • 33% of TikTok users have claimed they use TikTok regularly to gain updates on the latest news from the app. (Pew)
  • TikTok was the most downloaded app in 2021 beating various popular social media apps such as Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat. 
  • In 2022, Consumers in China spent more than $200 Billion on the e-commerce offering in TikTok. 
  • More than 1 billion videos are being viewed on TikTok every day. 
  • On TikTok, there are more than 500 million businesses and countless small businesses available. 
  • The majority of TikTok users fall under the age of 18 to 24. 
  • TikTok was downloaded more than 700 million times worldwide during the first quarter of 2023. 
  • In the first three quarters of 2023, TikTok registered a revenue of about $9.4 billion.
  • The best time to post on TikTok is Tuesday – 9 am EST, Thursday – 12 am, and Friday – 5 am. 
  • 9 am to 11 am EST from Monday to Friday is considered the most suitable time to go live on TikTok.

Also Read: Everything You Need to Know about TikTok Ban in the U.S

TikTok Overview 

Launch Date September 2016 (China),  August 2018 (Worldwide release) 
Headquarters Beijing, China
Total languages available in 40 languages 
OwnerByteDance
Industry Social Networking

Number of TikTok users worldwide from 2018 to 2027

In 2023, TikTok counted approximately 1.9 billion users globally. TikTok witnessed massive popularity in 2020 rising from 652.5 million in 2019 to 1,035 million in 2020. Here is a breakdown of the total number of TikTok users worldwide from 2018 to 2027. 

Year TikTok Users 
20272,249 million 
20262,198 million 
20252,136 million 
20242,051 million 
20231,922 million 
20221,719 million 
2021 1,407 million 
20201,035 million 
2019652.5 million 
2018    347.1 million 

Source: Statista 

Leading Countries with the largest TikTok users as of October 2023

The United States is the leading country with highest TikTok user count of 143.4 million, followed by Indonesia who has a total count of 106.52 million as of October 2023. 

Country Name TikTok User 
United States 143.4 million 
Indonesia 106.52 million 
Brazil 94.96 million 
Mexico 68.89 million 
Vietnam 62.61 million 
Russian Federation 59.12 million 
Pakistan 48.12 million 
Philippines 39.48 million 
Thailand 38.08 million 

Source: Statista 

18 to 34 is the age group with largest TikTok users 

The short-form video-sharing application TikTok is highly popular among the younger generation. The age group with the highest number of TikTok users ranges between 18 to 34. Below is a table showcasing the TikTok’s user base depending on the Age group: 

Age Group User Percentage 
18 to 24 37.3% 
25 to 34 32.9% 
35 to 44 15.7% 
45 to 54 8.3% 
55+ 5.8% 

TikTok Users by Gender 

TikTok contains a pretty equal ratio when it comes to the distribution of users by Gender. As of October 2023, approximately 49.2% of TikTok users worldwide were women. While the male users were approximately 50.8% of the total globally. (Statista) 

Distribution of TikTok Users based on Age Group and Gender 

Now that we are aware that 49.2% of TikTok users are women and 50.8% are male, let’s take a deeper look at the usage of TikTok based on their Age Group and Gender. Here is a table providing an entire breakdown of the total number of TikTok users based on their Age and Gender. 

Age Group Female Male 
18 to 24 18.2%18%
24 to 34 15.2%16.9%
35 to 44 7.9%8.6%
45 to 54 4.4%4.3%
55+ 3.4%3%

Source: Statista

As of October 2023, the age of 18 to 24 was found as the age group with the highest amount of TikTok audience worldwide. A total of 18.2% of women and 18% of the men in the platform audience were between the ages of 18 to 24. The second highest age group was 24 to 34 with 15.2% female audience and 16.9% male audience. 

Most Popular Category on TikTok

According to TikTok statistics, “Entertainment” is the most popular category in the short-video sharing platform worldwide. The Entertainment hashtag has a total of 535 billion hashtag views on TikTok.

The second most popular category on TikTok is “Dance” with 181 Billion hashtag views. Below is a table showcasing the overview of some of the most popular categories on TikTok: 

CategoryPopularity by Hashtag Search
Entertainment 535 Billion
Dance 181 Billion 
Pranks 79 Billion 
Fitness/Sports 57 Billion 
Home reno/D.I.Y.39 Billion 
Beauty/skincare33 Billion 

TikTok is the leading social media platform with the highest engagement rate per post

TikTok has an engagement rate of 17.96 for Micro (users with less than 15K followers) which is much higher compared to Instagram’s 3.86% and YouTube’s 1.63%. Here is a table showcasing the engagement rate of different types of influencers on TikTok in comparison to Instagram and YouTube:

Influencer Type TikTok Instagram YouTube 
Micro (less than 15K followers)17.96%3.86%1.63%
Regular(15k-50k followers)9.75%2.39%0.51%
Rising(50k-100k followers)8.37%1.87%0.46%
Mid(100k-500k followers)6.67%1.62%0.43%
Macro (500k – 1 mil. followers)6.20%1.36%0.44%
Mega (Over 1 mil. followers)4.96%1.21%0.37%

Source: Upfluence

TikTok Download Statistics

TikTok was named the second social media app that crossed 3 billion all-time downloads. It was reported that there were more than 770 million TikTok app downloads during the first three quarters of 2023. Let’s take a look at some of the additional facts related to TikTok downloads: 

  • In 2022, TikTok was the most downloaded app with 879.2 million downloads globally. 
  • During the second quarter of 2022, Colombia became the leading country with the highest TikTok downloads growth from the App Store.
  • According to recent market data, it was revealed that TikTok witnessed a global decline in quarterly downloads during the 2nd quarter of 2022 by 37%.
  • The country that witnessed the most decline was Finland with a total of – 27%. 
  • In the first half of 2021, TikTok has declared the most downloaded non-gaming app with 383 million downloads. 
  • TikTok has more than 1 billion downloads on Google Play Store. 

Here is a complete breakdown of the total number of TikTok downloads over the years. 

Year Total number downloads 
2023 (Till the Q3)770 million
2022879.2 million
2021656 million
2020850 million
2019693 million
2018657 million
2017 132 million

Source: Statista

Bonus Tip

As social media continues to evolve, platforms like TikTok not only shape entertainment trends but also influence tech applications in personal communication. Understanding this intersection can provide insights into user engagement and preferences across different digital environments. For a deeper dive into how AI is transforming personal interactions online, particularly in private communications, explore our discussion on the use of AI sexting chatbots for sex chat here.

Wrapping Up 

TikTok is currently one of the most popular social media platforms worldwide with more than 1.7 billion users. This short video-sharing platform is expected to witness more growth in coming years and is expected to reach 2,249 million by 2027 according to Statista.

TikTok is an excellent platform for anyone who wants to promote their brand online considering its excellent engagement rate. We hope this article has helped you gain data about TikTok, its downloads, popular categories, and much more. 

For a comprehensive overview of another visual-centric social media platform, check out our detailed article on Instagram Statistics.

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7 Best Gay AI Chatbots for Spicy Gay Sexting

Posted on November 7, 2024 by GilPress

Gay AI chatbots are becoming increasingly popular for their ability to engage in sexting and create erotic scenarios that cater to users’ fantasies. In this article, we’ll explore the top 7 Gay AI Chatbots designed for spicy gay sexting.

These chatbots utilize advanced AI technology and natural language processing to create immersive and interactive experiences for users looking to engage in gay sexting.

7 Best Gay AI Chatbots for Spicy Gay Sexting

Each Gay AI Chatbot mentioned below contains unique features and capabilities that help you provide an immersive and lifelike Gay sexing experience online.

1. Candy AI

Candy AI is the ultimate AI Gay Sexting platform where users can explore their sexuality and engage in explicit conversations with a wide range of Male and Female AI models. This platform offers an extensive range of AI models in both Anime and Realistic style and each character contains a short description among itself stating the age and personality of the AI model. 

To begin sexting on Candy AI, users need to simply navigate to the official site of Candy AI and select who they are interested in, “Male or Female.” Once you have selected your desired gender, a wide range of AI model options will appear on your screen. Choose your favorite character and begin chatting with them. You can unleash your imagination, desires, fantasies, or anything with your selected character. 

Key Features: 

  • It contains an extensive amount of AI character options in both Males and Females for sexting. 
  • Users can also create a brand new AI character for themselves by customizing its appearance and personality on this platform. 
  • Users can request images in various environments or scenarios to their AI model to feel more connected and gain a personalized experience. 

Pricing:

Candy AI contains two premium plans $12.99/month and $69.99/year. 

2. FAPAI.app

FAPai.app is an AI chatbot platform also designed for gay sexting. FAPai’s Gay AI chatbots bring an enticing twist to AI interactions, offering a unique, satisfying experience that rivals human conversations. With FAPai, users can delve into sensual dialogue with Gay AI personalities crafted to enhance satisfaction and fulfill intimate fantasies.

Features:

  • AI chatbots crafted specifically for gay sexting
  • New fantasy characters are released weekly
  • Offers deep, imaginative conversation beyond basic chat
  • Wide variety of characters to suit diverse tastes
  • 24/7 availability for discreet, private chats

3. CrushOn AI

CrushOn AI is another popular AI chatbot that encourages users to engage in Gay sexting with a variety of AI models. This is a Gay NSFW AI chat platform where users can interact with their desired AI characters and unleash their desires and fantasies without any restrictions. 

CrushOn AI offers a wide range of AI characters in numerous categories such as Anime, MILF, DILF, Fictional, Historical, and much more. Apart from this, users can also create a custom AI character for themselves on this platform for a more personalized gay sexting experience. This way, users can create a character with a custom name, image, definition, personality, and more. 

Key Features:

  • A wide range of AI characters is available in various categories such as Historical, fictional, Action, Game, Anime, Celebrity, and more. 
  • Users can create their customized AI characters on this platform for a personalized experience.
  • It contains a simple and intuitive interface that anyone can access. 

Pricing: 

A free plan is available, paid plans are mentioned below: 

Standard Plan Premium Plan Deluxe Plan 
$5.99/month $14.99/month $49.99/month 

4. PepHop AI 

PepHop AI is an excellent AI chatbot platform that allows users to engage in Gay explicit conversation with a variety of different AI chatbots. Through this platform, users can unleash their desires and talk about everything regardless of their sexual orientation. 

PepHop AI offers a wide range of AI chatbot options in numerous categories such as No Binary, Anime, Male, Female, and more. In addition, users can even design a personalized Gay AI chatbot specially for themselves by customizing its interests and personalities based on individual preferences.

Features: 

  • Users can interact with Gay AI chatbots and ask them to engage in roleplay scenarios and explore their desired fantasies effortlessly. 
  • With PepHop AI users can design their own AI Gay chatbot and generate a custom name, introduction, avatar, etc. 
  • It offers excellent privacy and security measures to ensure the conversation between the user and the AI chatbot remains private and secure. 

Pricing:

Lite Plan Classic Plan Elite Plan
$4.99/month $9.99/month$29.99/month
2,000 messages per month5,000 messages per month16,000 messages per month

5. SpicyChat AI

Just like the name suggests, SpicyChat AI is an AI-powered chatbot that allows users to engage in uncensored and spicy conversations with their desired AI characters. To access Gay AI Sex chat on this platform, users need to start by navigating to the official site of SpicyChat AI and sign up using their email. After this, under the tag sections, type “LGBTQ+” and tap on it, and the platform will display all the gay sexting chatbots. Select any chatbot based on your preferences, and that’s it. You can chat about anything with your chatbot without any restrictions. 

This tool also allows users to generate their own chatbot by providing a Name, Title, Greeting, Chatbot personality, avatar, and tags. Overall, SpicyChat AI is one of the best websites that can provide your spicy gay sexting experience using simple methods. 

Key Features: 

  • SpicyChat AI contains various AI characters in different tags. 
  • This tool allows users to generate their own customized AI chatbot for a personalized experience online. 
  • Users can also engage in roleplay with their desired AI chatbot and engage in unique storylines and scenarios. 

Pricing: 

There are three membership plans available for SpicyChat AI which are mentioned below: 

Get a Taste True Supporter I’m All in 
$5.00/month$14.50/month $24.95/month

6. MyAnima AI

MyAnima AI is one of the best AI Gay Chat Apps where users can truly express their emotions and imagination to their virtual companion. This chatbot is powered by artificial intelligence and allows users to engage in conversations with a variety of AI characters and have a fun experience online. This chatbot is here to provide companionship, roleplay, and more. Not only does this platform listen to everything that you say, but it also understands everything that you feel and express. 

The stand-out part about this platform is that it’s available 24/7; therefore, whether it’s the middle of the night or early morning, if you feel distressed, you can navigate to MyAnima and express your feelings with it. In addition, this tool also offers roleplay features using which users can effortlessly engage in role-play conversations and engage in various unique storylines and scenarios for a fun experience online. 

Key Features: 

  • It contains a mobile application for both iOS and Android devices. 
  • Easy to access as it contains a simple and intuitive interface. 
  • Users can engage in roleplay on this platform. 
  • MyAnima AI is available 24/7. 

Pricing: 

Free, in-app purchasing begins at $2.99. 

7. Talk Dirty AI

Lastly, we have TalkDirty AI. This is another impressive AI-powered chatbot where users can express their imagination and fantasies and talk about anything, including Gay sexting with the AI chatbot without any restrictions. 

To access this platform, users need to visit TalkDirty AI’s official website and sign up using their email address. Once done, Enter an open-ended prompt to set the scene, and let the advanced technology of AI put you on a fascinating journey. Users need to enter a short description of a scene that they like and the AI technology will instantly generate a conversation for them based on their likes. This way you can engage in different scenarios on this platform and have a fun and unique experience sexting.  

Key Features: 

  • This platform allows users to engage in conversations with unique scenarios and storylines. 
  • It contains an active community where users can browse various other storylines and continue the conversations. 
  • It is simple to use. 

Pricing: 

TalkDirty AI contains a premium plan available for $19.99 that provides various advanced features such as unlimited chats, unlimited scenarios, and interactive images. 

Conclusion

Gay AI Chat Apps are excellent AI-powered chatbots that can help generate human-like responses to your sexting requests and fulfill all your desires and fantasies effortlessly. The majority of these platforms not only allow users to engage in gay sexting but also encourage them to create their own custom AI chatbot for a personalized experience. Above we have mentioned 5 Best AI Gay Chat Apps where users can unleash their imagination and engage in unique roleplay effortlessly. 

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A Visual Guide to the Startup Universe

Posted on February 12, 2015 by GilPress
Posted in startups | Leave a comment

2013 Data Science Salary Survey: Open source tools correlate with higher salary

Posted on January 18, 2014 by GilPress

“In our report, 2013 Data Science Salary Survey, we make our own data-driven contribution to the conversation. We collected a survey from attendees of the Strata Conference in New York and Santa Clara, California, about tool usage and salary…

What did we find?

In a sentence: those who use data tools make more.

More specifically, the tools that correlate with higher salary are scalable and generally open source; they are often script-based or built for machine learning.  Those attendees who tend to use one such tool tend to use others––that is, these tools form a ‘cluster’ in terms of usage among our sample.  Perhaps just as interesting is that some of the traditional, popular tools such as Excel and SAS were not used as widely as R and Python. This might be food for thought for those data analysts who have thus far resisted learning how to code or moving beyond query-based data tools.”

Source: 2013 Data Science Salary Survey 

Posted in Big Data Analytics, Data Science, Data Science Careers, Data Scientists | Leave a comment

The New Apple Wristop Computer: Not Designed for the Internet of Things

Posted on September 27, 2014 by GilPress

MIT Media Lab cofounder Nicholas Negroponte observed at a recent TED event that “I look today at some of the work being done around the Internet of Things and it’s kind of tragically pathetic.”

The “tragically pathetic” label has been especially fitting for wearables, considered the hottest segment of the Internet of Things.  Lauren Goode at Re/Code wrote back in March: “Let me guess: Your activity-tracking wristband is sitting on your dresser or in a drawer somewhere right now, while it seems that every day there’s a news report out about an upcoming wearable product that’s going to be better, cooler, smarter.”

All of this was going to change when Apple finally entered the category with its smart watch. Many observers hoped that Apple’s design principles, obsession with simplicity, and track record of delighting users with easy-to-use products, are going to finally give the world a useful and fun wearable.

Instead, we got a good-looking wrist-top computer. Not a simple, intuitive, and focused device but a generic, complex product with too many functions and options. Kevin McCullagh wrote in fastcodesing.com: “I can’t help but think Steve Jobs would have stopped the kitchen sink being thrown in like this. Do we really need photos and maps on a stamp-sized screen, when our phones are rarely out of reach? For all the claims of a ‘thousand no’s for every yes,’ the post-Jobs era is shaping up to be defined by less ruthless focus.” Back in June, Adam Lashinsky already made this general observation about the potential loss of the famed product development discipline: “Apple, once the epitome of simplicity, is becoming the unlikely poster child for complexity.”

“Complexity,” however, does not tell the whole story. By introducing a watch that is basically a computer on your wrist, Apple missed an opportunity not just to reorient the wearables market to something much better than “tragically pathetic,” but also to define the design and usability principles for the Internet of Things.

In his TED talk, Negroponte highlighted what he called “not a particularly enlightened view of the Internet of Things.” This is the tendency to move the intelligence (or functionality of many devices) into the cell phone (or the wearable), instead of building the intelligence into the “thing,” whatever the thing is – the oven, the refrigerator, the road, the walls, all the physical things around us. More generally, it is the tendency to continue evolving the current computer paradigm—from the mainframe to the laptop to the wristop computer—instead of developing a completely new Internet of Things paradigm.

The new paradigm should embrace and evolve the principles of what was once called “ubiquitous computing.” The history of that vision over the last two decades may help illuminate where the Internet of Things is today and where it may or may not go.

In 1991, Mark Weiser, then head of the Computer Science Lab at Xerox PARC, published an article in Scientific American titled “The Computer for the 21st Century.” The article opens with what should be the rallying cry for the Internet of Things today: “The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it.”

Weiser went on to explain what was wrong with the personal computing revolution brought on by Apple and others: “The arcane aura that surrounds personal computers is not just a ‘user interface’ problem. My colleague and I at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center think that the idea of a ‘personal’ computer itself is misplaced and that the visions of laptop machines, dynabooks and ‘knowledge navigators’ is only a transitional step toward achieving the real potential of information technology.  Such machines cannot truly make computing an integral, invisible part of people’s lives.”

Weiser understood that, conceptually, the PC was simply a mainframe on a desk, albeit with easier-to-use applications.  He misjudged, however, the powerful and long-lasting impact that this new productivity and life-enhancing tool would exert on millions of users worldwide. Weiser wrote: “My colleagues and I at PARC believe that what we call ubiquitous computing will gradually emerge as the dominant mode of computer access over the next 20 years. … [B]y making everything faster and easier to do, with less strain and fewer mental gymnastics, it will transform what is apparently possible. … [M]achines that fit the human environment instead of forcing humans to enter theirs will make using a computer as refreshing as taking a walk in the woods.”

Ubiquitous computing has not become the “dominant mode of computer access” mostly because of Steve Jobs’ Apple. It successfully invented variations on the theme of the Internet of Computers: The iPod, the iPhone, the iPad. All of them beautifully designed, easy-to-use, and useful. All of them cementing and enlarging the dominance of the Internet of Computers paradigm. Now Apple has extended the paradigm by inventing a wristop computer. That the Apple Watch is more complex and less focused than Apple’s previous successful inventions matters less than the fact that it continues in their well-trodden path.

While the dominant paradigm has been reinforced and expanded by the successful innovations of Apple and others, the vision of ubiquitous computing has not died. Today, when we are adding intelligence to things at an accelerating rate, it is more important than ever. Earlier this year, I asked Bob Metcalfe what is required to make us happy with our Internet of Things experience. “Not so much good UX, but no UX at all,” he said. “The IoT should disappear into the woodwork, even faster than Ethernet has.” Metcalfe invented the Ethernet at Xerox PARC at the time Weiser and others were working on making computers disappear.

Besides ubiquity, there are at least two other dimensions to the new paradigm of the Internet of Things. One is seamless connectivity. In response to the same question, Google’s Hal Varian told me, “I think that the big challenge now is interoperability. Given the fact that there will be an explosion of new devices, it is important that they talk to each other. For example, I want my smoke alarm to talk to my bedroom lights, and my garden moisture detector to talk to my lawn sprinkler.” No more islands of computing, a hallmark of the Internet of (isolated) Computers.

Another important dimension of the new paradigm is useful data. Not big or small, nor irrelevant or trapped in a silo, just useful. The value of the “things” in the Internet of Things paradigm is measured by how well the data they collect is analyzed and how quickly useful feedback based on this analysis is delivered to the user.

Disappearing into the woodwork. All things talking to all things. Useful data. It may not be Apple, but the company or companies that will master these will usher in the new era of the Internet of Things where we finally get over our mainframe/PC/Wristop computer habit.

[Originally published on Forbes.com]

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Big Data Quotes: Einstein, Come Back When You’ve Got Data

Posted on July 6, 2013 by GilPress

“Big data is what happened when the cost of storing information became less than the cost of making the decision to throw it away”—George Dyson (quoted by Tim O’Reilly)

“If the engineers have their way, every idea, memory, and feeling—the recorded consciousness of a single lifetime—will be stored in the cloud… ‘Information overload’ once referred to the difficulty of absorbing intelligently the data produced by others. Now we face the peril of choking on our own…By remembering everything, we may become haunted by our pasts and immobilized by digital distractions—or we may gain new powers to prevent the bad and promote the good”—G. Pascal Zachary

“[I]n a world where massive datasets can be analysed to identify patterns not easily identified using simpler analogue methods, what happens to genius of the Einstein variety?

Genius is about big ideas, not big data. Analysing the attributes and characteristics of anything is guaranteed to find some patterns. It is inherently a theoretical exercise, one that requires minimal thought once you’ve figured out what you want to measure. If you’re not sure, just measure everything you can get your hands on. Since the number of observations — the size of the sample — is by definition huge, the laws of statistics kick in quickly to ensure that significant relationships will be identified. And who could argue with the data?

Unfortunately, analysing data to identify patterns requires you to have the data. That means that big data is, by necessity, backward-looking; you can only analyze what has happened in the past, not what you can imagine happening in the future. In fact, there is no room for imagination, for serendipitous connections to be made, for learning new things that go beyond the data. Big data gives you the answer to whatever problem you might have (as long as you can collect enough relevant information to plug into your handy supercomputer). In that world, there is nothing to learn; the right answer is given…

What if Albert Einstein lived today and not 100 years ago? What would big data say about the general theory of relativity, about quantum theory? There was no empirical support for his ideas at the time — that’s why we call them breakthroughs.

Today, Einstein might be looked at as a curiosity, an ‘interesting’ man whose ideas were so out of the mainstream that a blogger would barely pay attention. Come back when you’ve got some data to support your point”—Sidney Finkelstein

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The CIO Interview: Annabelle Bexiga, TIAA-CREF

Posted on August 29, 2013 by GilPress

“Innovation is everyone’s job,” Annabelle Bexiga, EVP and CIO at TIAA-CREF told me recently. “The most mundane thing,” says Bexiga, “even stacking servers in the data center, can be innovative if you can think of a different way of doing it.”

Contrary to repeated predictions heralding the end of IT innovation, IT is now synonymous with the ever-changing technological landscape of all aspects of our lives. It is also synonymous, for the most part, with business innovation, as IT transforms all business activities from operations to manufacturing to customer relations.

At TIAA-CREF, the IT organization is innovating in support of the growth and expansion of the business. Founded in 1918 to provide retirement services to university faculty, TIAA-CREF is expanding to provide a wider range of financial services and establish a growing presence in other not-for-profit sectors, including health care, research, cultural organizations, and the public sector.  It is already one of the largest pension funds in the U.S., with $520 billion of assets under management, serving 3.9 million active and retired individuals, in addition to institutional investors, retirement plan sponsors, and financial planners.   Continue reading →

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The Data Scientist Will Be Replaced By Tools

Posted on September 13, 2012 by GilPress

We just started to use the term “data scientist” and the demise of this new profession is already predicted? Well, at least it’s not one more “rise of the machines” prophecy; it’s the provocative title of a proposed panel for the upcoming SXSW.

The organizer of the panel, Scott Hendrickson of Gnip, has provided a useful run-down of some of the arguments for and against the possible disappearance of data scientists. Supporting the proposition are the current scarcity of data science talent and a slew of startups providing “data science as a service.” As an example of the opposition to the “democratization of algorithms,” Hendrickson quotes Cathy (Mathbabe) O’Neil who wrote recently that “if your model fails, you want to be able to figure out why it failed. The only way to do that is to know how it works to begin with. Even if it worked in a given situation, when you train on slightly different data you might run into something that throws it for a loop, and you’d better be able to figure out what that is.” In other words, machines will never have the deep understanding of the tools of data science that is required to practice data science.   Continue reading →

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Doing Data Science at Manheim

Posted on February 12, 2014 by GilPress

As ones and zeros eat the world, data is the new product and data science is the new process of innovation.

The International Institute for Analytics predicts that in 2014 companies in a variety of industries will increasingly use analytics on the data they have accumulated to develop new products and services. NewVantage Partners’ most recent Big Data Survey reports that 68% of executives felt that “new product innovations” was the greatest value to their organization from big data. In releasing the Accenture Technology Vision 2014, Accenture’s CTO Paul Daugherty said that “Digital is rapidly becoming part of the fabric of [large enterprises’] operating DNA and they are poised to become the digital power brokers of tomorrow.”

The best example of this trend I’ve encountered recently came from an industry one does not necessarily associate with data crunching and analysis—the vehicle remarketing industry, better known as used cars auctions. In 2012, Manheim, a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises, handled nearly 8 million used vehicles, facilitating transactions representing more than $50 billion in value.  With annual revenues of more than $2.5 billion, Manheim offers its services in 14 countries, from physical and online auction channels to financing, transportation, and mobile solutions. Manheim’s research and consulting arm, Manheim Consulting, provides market intelligence and publishes the monthly Used Vehicle Value Index and the annual Used Car Market Report (see here for the 2014 version).

Manheim has provided for free this type of analysis, seeing it as part of the value it offers to auto dealers who are members of its network.  But now it has moved into using its deep knowledge of the used car market and its analytics expertise to offer a new, fee-based service.  Shifting the analytics team from supporting the business to generating revenues, “we’ve decided to look at how we can help dealers in managing the risk associated with their inventory,” T. Glenn Bailey told me.

Bailey is Senior Director of Enterprise Product Planning at Manheim, and his responsibilities include market segmentation, forecasting, and optimization.  He and his team started testing last year a new service called DealShield. The idea came from the financial markets, specifically put option contracts. Just like a put option protects the buyer from a decline in the price of a stock below a specified price, so does DealShield offer a guarantee that Manheim will buy a car back from the dealer, within a certain time frame, for what they paid for it plus the fee they paid.  “It is as if they never bought the car,” says Bailey.

Manheim’s market knowledge and analytics skills give it confidence in its estimates of the value of a car and what they would be able to offer for it if it comes back to them. “We see a lot of value in it,” says Bailey, “because one of the things dealers like to have is liquidity. They use wholesale financing to buy used cars and typically repay the loan within seven to fourteen days. The inventory that’s sitting out there is money that is tied up. DealShield allows them to get out of that car and get their money back in a certain period of time.”

To do their analysis, the Manheim team uses tools that have served this purpose for years, demonstrating that for certain types of analysis and data you can do data science without using any of the new big data technologies. The data is collected and stored in an IBM DB2 database and the analysis is done using a variety of SAS analytics tools.  “The need to combine data from different sources is why we moved into a SAS cloud,” says Bailey. “I wanted our analyst team to be focused on the analytics and not worry about the administrative side.”

Speaking of the analyst team, Bailey says that “we are in the same market for analytics and data science talent with everybody.” In the competition for these hard-to-find professionals, Bailey looks for creativity, communications skills and willingness to learn the business. “In my experience,” he says, “it is fairly easy to tell if you have the technical chops.” He spends most of the time when he interviews people trying to determine if they are creative and can come up with new ideas on how to apply analytics tools to the data to find new insights. “Reversing the flow of cause and effect,” Bailey calls it. “Maybe optimization can tell us where to send a vehicle to maximize value.”

In addition to looking for “people that can bring technology to the business,” Bailey also looks for people who are comfortable with “getting with the business itself.” He calls it “putting on the polo shirt,” spending time with the dealers and getting engaged with them to understand their business first-hand.  This practical bent does not stop with the hiring of the right people but continues with establishing the right work environment and a “fail-fast” culture. “In some sense,” says Bailey, ”failure is rewarded because it means you are testing this thing out.” When they developed DealShield, “we had a chart that over a 2-month period showed all the things that failed. If it doesn’t work, kill it.”

In addition to being the first knowledge-based service that is expected to bring in a new revenue stream, DealShield breaks new ground for Manheim because it is the first time the company actually owns cars (when they come back from the dealer), not just acting as a middle-man. That became an opportunity for an analyst on Bailey’s team to hone further her knowledge of the business.  “She is now responsible for selling the cars. She is setting the auction, the floor price, where to run the auction,” says Bailey.

Doing data science means engaging with the business, inventing new data-based products, even becoming an integral part of revenue stream for the business.

[Originally published on Forbes.com]

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Sources and Types of Big Data (Infographic)

Posted on November 10, 2013 by GilPress
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