"The world is moving into a new age of numbers," says BusinessWeek. "Partnerships between mathematicians and computer scientists are bulling into whole new domains of business and imposing the efficiencies of math." Quants are "changing the nature of research in newsrooms and in biology labs ... more of the economy falls into the realm of numbers ... Now they're mapping out ad campaigns and building new businesses with mountains of data."
Here are several examples of how "math transforms industries" in your future:
- Advertising sector. Mathematical targeting replaces hunches. "The clearest example of math's disruptive power is in advertising. There Google and other search companies use math to transform an industry that grew on ideas, hunches and personal relationships into a series of calculations." Startup Efficient Frontier optimizes online ad campaigns based on response time and ROI. E-Loan spent $15 million this way.
- Food/beverage sector. Enologix helps "vintners mimic the chemistry of wines." Math algorithms cull through 70,000 wines, later matched to customer data for marketing.
- Consulting sector. IBM builds the "perfect teams" using "math profiles of 50,000 consultants," then tracks progress in "virtual assembly lines!" One IBMer added: "Credit cards, bank accounts. Everything is being analyzed 24/7 whether you like it or not. You would be amazed how much data is available." IBM is also using "math-based blueprints to upgrade steel mills in China and revamp operations at the U.S. Postal Service."
- Media sector. Inform Technologies, a Goldman startup, "combs through thousands of press articles and blog posts in English." It uses math algorithms, not keywords or the alphabet, analyzing, then creating customized news feeds for users. BusinessWeek says these "automatic systems threaten to replace editors."
- Marketing sector. Startup Umbria analyzes blog product pick and pans: "Using vector graphics, it confirmed that raunchy Burger King online turned off nearly everyone, except the target audience." Harrah's Casino built profiles of millions of customers. Payoff: Harrah averaged 22% annual growth over five years as its stock nearly tripled.
- Intelligence sector. Think massive: NSA spying online and on phone traffic, using math algorithms searching for patterns on potential attacks. And intelligence of a commercial stripe, where "consumers will be armed with ever more data, from predictive models of real estate markets to patient mortality charts for comparing different oncologists."
No comments:
Post a Comment