# Section 3 Growth Potential Coming from Big Data Utilization

### 1. Big Data bringing about new growth

## (1) Concept of Big Data

Big Data features massiveness, diversity and real-time availability. The significance of Big Data utilization is that ICT development has allowed massive, diverse data to be created, collected and accumulated on a real-time basis for analyses to detect abnormal changes, forecast future developments, provide services meeting users' needs, improve business operation efficiency and create new industries.

Big Data components are from various sources and diverse. The recent attention-attracting fact is that massive, diverse unstructured data have rapidly increased and become available for analyses in line with ICT development.

## (2) Effects of Big Data utilization on economic growth

### a. Growth accounting equation approach (macro viewpoint)

First, an increase in data analysis and other Big Data-related investment can be created as an economic effect since data analyses meeting data characteristics are required for the effective utilization of Big Data for marketing and other operations.

Generally, investment as a demand component can drive present economic growth, and investment accumulation leads to capital stock to prevent a decline in capital productivity and contribute to productivity on the supply side. Given the duality of investment, Big Data-related investment can be expected to generate a productivity improvement effect. Other expected effects include cost cuts, operational efficiency improvements, and productivity improvements through new product development and new information creation and utilization.

Big Data utilization can thus be expected to drive economic growth through the quantitative improvement effect of an increase in data-related investment and investment stock and the qualitative improvement or direct effect of a relevant rise in productivity. New businesses and jobs can also be created to achieve the redistribution of labor resources, further improving overall economic efficiency.

Furthermore, the creation of a virtuous circle of ICT investment and productivity improvement may lead to additional ICT investment. A positive linkage effect of investment and productivity can be expected to create an indirect path to economic growth (Figure 1-3-1-1).

### b. Approach based on actual utilization at enterprises and other

## organizations (micro viewpoint)

Human and social behaviors are apparently divided into three steps — perception, decision and implementation, which rotate in a cycle. ICT and Big Data utilization can be expected to improve the accuracy and speed of these steps. How the introduction of computers, their networking and the utilization of Big Data have impacted or will impact humans and society is explained below.

First, stand-alone computers were designed to improve the accuracy of decisions upon their introduction at enterprises and other organizations, contributing to reducing waste in the implementation of these decisions.

In a later stage where computers were networked through the Internet to promote linkage between data, perception grew more rapid and accurate. Cloud computing has diffused to enable distributed processing, substantially improving data-processing capacity in the decision-making stage. In the implementation stage, networking allowed decisions to be conveyed more widely, quickly and accurately.

How has ICT advancement including Big Data utiliza-

Figure 1-3-1-1 Economic growth path contributed by Big Data distribution, accumulation and utilization (macro viewpoint)

(Source) MIC "Survey Research on Consideration of Approach for Measuring Information Distribution/Accumulation Volumes" (2013)