"Next revolution will be Personal, with Data Factories at the centre" - Sir Michael Moritz, Sequoia Capital

Data Factory will change our entire life, says Sequoia Capital’s Sir Michael Moritz, the renowned Silicon Valley venture capitalist. At TechCrunch Disrupt, in San Francisco, Sir Michael Moritz spoke about the rise of Data Factory and how it is leading to Personal Revolution across the world.

In the beginning, the tools were in the field, then they migrated to factories; and, later, the tools met the assembly line, traced Moritz. What next? Data Factories, he says, with tools becoming free, and data getting generated like never before.

Whereas in the year 2000, invariably one paid for tools – be they about systems, databases, office productivity, texting, voicemail, or video conferencing – now, there are free and near-free options for these purposes. Similarly, with regard to recruiting (LinkedIn), sales (Salesforce), promotion (Facebook, Twitter), marketing (Instagram, Pinterest), fulfilment (Amazon), and customer service (Zendesk). Leading the new revolution that is ‘Personal’ are factors such as the steady increase in bandwidth, storage, computation power, apps, and the number of devices, he outlined.

Some of the interesting data points that Moritz mentioned are: 75% of 15,000 TaskRabbits in the US rely on TaskRabbit to pay bills (almost 10% rely on TaskRabbit for 100% of their income); there are more than 11.7 million opinion leaders, with LinkedIn becoming the ‘global microphone for content’, and the unpaid content contributors on that platform including Richard Branson, Barack Obama, Arianna Huffington, and Bill Gates; of the 25 million sellers on eBay, 1.3 million sellers use eBay as a primary/ secondary source of income; amount paid by advertisers on YouTube was $4 billion in 2012, up 60% from 2011; and one-fourth of the top 100 best-selling ebooks on Amazone.com were independently published using KDP.

Tech ventures are giving away tools, and Data Factories are based on our contribution as consumers and users of these tools, pointed out Moritz. We give our time and data and information, and these ventures, or Data Factories, are churning out revolution and profit. In the process, there is varied disruption; for instance, reduction of jobs, even as there is empowerment of individuals and small businesses.

In sum, what has led to the growth of Data Factories? Lowering of the cost of tools, proliferation of production capacity, and empowerment of individuals and small businesses, concluded Moritz.