The term is deceptive. Big data doesn’t only refer to large volumes of data, but also in particular to different types of data and unstructured data, e.g. from the social web.
By observing and analysing the users of social networks, medium-sized companies can find out more about the wishes and needs of these users; they can also approach them directly through social media. The Oracle Social Cloud now also enables the analysis of Instagram and Weibo, two of the strongest growing social networks in the world. More than half of all Internet users between the age of 18 and 29 already use the photo and video platform Instagram, with this figure set to increase in future. Weibo is a popular social network, especially in China, where almost 176 million people and 800,000 companies are registered. In total, more than half of all adult Internet users were already active on more than one social network in 2014. (Source: Pew Research Center/Oracle/bs)