Facebook, World Bank and OECD Link Up to Gather Data -Update
September 28 2016 - 11:51AM
Dow Jones News
By Paul Hannon
Social media giant Facebook Inc. is teaming up with the World
Bank and the Organization for Economic and Development to pioneer a
new way of collecting data, taking the first step on a path to what
they hope will be broader, less expensive and more timely insights
into the state of the global economy.
The three partners on Wednesday launched a new measure of
business sentiment based on questioning companies that use their
Facebook pages to connect with customers. Known as the Future of
Business Survey, the report has been in testing since February and
received responses to 15 queries from a total of 90,000 small and
medium-size firms across 22 countries.
Its first public release shows that those businesses are more
optimistic about their prospects than other companies surveyed by
more traditional means.
But the real interest for the three partners is the potential to
drill down into the factors that affect the growth of small
businesses, a process that until now has involved great expense and
time, since it involves face-to-face interviews by polling
professionals that are carried out over many months and are
infrequently updated.
"What I feel is appealing about this particular survey is that
it's potentially a more powerful tool for getting information more
quickly and at a fraction of the cost," said Agusto Lopez Claros,
director of the Global Indicators Group at the World Bank.
Even in developed countries with well funded and equipped
statistics offices, timely information on very small businesses is
hard to come by. In developing countries, that scarcity can be more
acute. The ability to connect with business owners via Facebook or
other social media platforms could make it possible to gather such
information, and acquire a more complete picture of what is
happening in those economies.
The new approach to data gathering could even enable some
smaller developing countries to skip the process of enlarging their
statistics agencies. That is an opportunity Mr. Lopez Claros
compares to the advent of mobile telephones, which enabled many
African countries to skip the construction of expensive fixed-line
infrastructure and improve communications at a fraction of that
cost.
It could also help identify emerging obstacles to the expansion
of smaller businesses early enough to aid their removal, which
could help boost economic growth.
"When you listen to small businesses, you can find new ways to
help them grow," said Nicola Mendelsohn, Facebook's vice president
for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. "This is just the beginning
of what we see as a long term effort."
For now, neither the World Bank nor the OECD see the Facebook
project as supplanting their traditional data gathering. One
immediate obstacle is that Facebook doesn't operate in China.
"That is why we cannot just rely on this," said Martine Durand,
the OECD's chief statistician. "We need to continue to look at
regular sources. China is a big limitation if you want to
understand what's happening in the global economy."
One of those regular sources is the OECD's annual report on
entrepreneurial activity, also released Wednesday. It found that
the pace at which new businesses are being created remains below
precrisis levels, but has begun to pick up across many of the
Paris-based research body's 35 members.
Write to Paul Hannon at paul.hannon@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 28, 2016 11:36 ET (15:36 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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