We look back at last year’s contribution to the alternative data landscape. New jargon has made its way into common use, while leading alt data categories have seen their ecosystems disrupted. Below, we look at what these developments mean for data buyers and sellers, and how the landscape is changing.

In January 2023, we looked at 10 data products that might not survive the year. In this follow-up, we summarise the current state of those products and their vendors.

News data has historically been a popular source of alternative data due to its ability to influence investor sentiment and move markets. The rise in AI has increased the scrutiny of underlying training data for generative AI models and increased understanding of the value of proprietary data. As newspapers increasingly take actions to protect and monetise their content, we discuss the existing news landscape, the growth of publishers selling directly to investors and the implications of these developments.

China is slowly opening the door to international commodities traders, spurring a growth in demand for data. In this report, we break down the Chinese commodity data market and highlight the datasets relied on by Chinese traders.

High interest rates have contributed to record low private equity deal volumes. Faced with steep borrowing costs, PE firms are focusing on maximising value from portfolio companies.

Dozens of Chinese companies, from leading tech giants to new entrants, have jumped on the LLM bandwagon in the wake of ChatGPT’s public release. How has the new revolutionary technology affected data space in China in the past year? This report summarises our on-the-ground findings.

The recent ESG backlash has led to increased scrutiny. This report provides an overview of third-party datasets that can help investors compare ESG disclosures with material sustainability performance.

The tracking of corporate jets continues to develop as a data category. We’ve seen an uptick in client numbers, decreased prices and an increase in the coverage and overall capabilities of data providers in this space. As a result of datasets becoming more sophisticated in this space, certain providers have emerged as a must-have dataset for jet-tracking investors. In this piece, we outline incumbent datasets that are popular with investors as well as free and paid alternatives. We also highlight some limitations that investors may face when using these datasets.

We outline the key datasets available to monitor the industrials sector, highlighting datasets better suited for quantitative and fundamental strategies. The sub-sectors in focus are machinery/heavy equipment, building materials, transportation and chemicals.

Last year, we observed that the POS alternative data market lacks products with a consolidated market view across diverse channels and product types. We predicted that a wave of mergers would arise to offer solution to this structural shortcoming. A year later, we can confidently state our prediction on increased merger activity was accurate. That said, the market today remains far from mature. In this report, we summarise the activity we’ve observed in the POS data landscape across 2023.