On the data.gov application site, there are a handful of examples where the open data from data.gov can provide a service to consumers. There is a good sampling of applications voluntarily submitted to the site for the chance to be featured. Data.gov does not say they endorse the applications.
One of the many applications is Redfin. I recently learned about Redfin on television, and it was a commercial for the company. On the data.gov site, there is a good description of the application. Redfin uses the data from The Department of Housing and Urban Development, The Department of the Interior, and the U.S. Geological Survey(USGS) (Data.gov, 2019). The Department of the Interior includes the USGS and not sure why it is listed separately on data.gov. One of the links is dead for the Map of the U.S. (most likely the USGS), and the Homebuyer Activities Report link gives an old dataset from March of 2015 (Data.gov, 2015). Not sure what to think about this, data.gov doesn’t update the site? Looking into the Investor Relations on Redfin, they launched in 2006 (Redfin Investor Relations, 2019), and I guess they used open data in 2015?
Redfin’s presentation to investors describes the company as a “technology-powered real estate company” (Redfin, 2019). They started as a map-based real estate search company, which would make sense with the USGS data from data.gov. Redfin centers its model around big data and machine learning, integrating about sixteen different services that are involved with the whole experience of buying and selling real estate (Redfin, 2019, p.14). After looking through the Redfin website, I would estimate the data from data.gov would be used for customers to research prospective home buying or selling statistics relating to the location of the homes for sale. There is a section that sells real estate agents on why to use Redfin, which seems like using the Bureau of Labor Statistics would be applicable data to use. As I read deeper into the Investor Report, I can see Redfin could easily use open data from data.gov for more internal research that their staff data scientists could use for predictive analytics to drive the company in competitive directions. One example is a service called Redfin Concierge that offers to fix the home for sale for a 2% listing fee and home staging (Redfin, 2019, p.16-17). Or instead of the Redfin Concierge service they offer to buy the home outright (Redfin, 2019, p.16), the service is in four to five markets with anticipation of adding more in 2019 (Redfin, 2019, p.17-18). This is an example of the data scientist working for Redfin doing the research using data.gov data to estimate and predicted the risk involved with taking on a renovation or buying then holding inventory (money tied up) in existing and new markets; a much more substantial investment of cash than running a digital assets web service and added risk. Redfin is an example of a company using open data from the data.gov.
References
Data.gov. (2019). Applications. Retrieved from: https://www.data.gov/applications
Data.gov. (March 15, 2015). Homebuyer activities report. Retrieved from: https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/homebuyer-activities-report
Redfin Press Center. (2018). Our Mission is to redefine real estate in the customer’s favor. Retrieved from: http://press.redfin.com/about?c=252734&p=irol-about
Redfin Investor Relations. (2019). Corporate profile. Retrieved from: http://investors.redfin.com/
Redfin. (February 14, 2019). A technology-powered real estate company. pp. 1-20. Retrieved from: http://investors.redfin.com/static-files/7fc3bd99-0d2f-44fd-9f4c-d726aa509396