What is the size of the business information market in the UK?

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Request for Question Clarification by ragingacademic-ga on 06 Dec 2002 07:46 PST

grandles -

Hi.  I'd like to request that you clarify your question a bit.
What exactly do you mean by "Business Information"?

thanks,
ragingacademic

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Clarification of Question by grandles-ga on 06 Dec 2002 10:35 PST

The comments provided by the previous researcher refer to a report
which describes the market as follows:

"The largest sector of the UK business information market is market
data. This includes items like trade magazines and newspapers, and
accounts for 59.7% of the total. Financial data is the next largest,
taking 24.9% of the market, with company data the smallest sector,
accounting for 15.4% of the total."

This is what I meant by the business information market but the report
is quite dated (1998). Something more up-to-date would be appreciated.

Many thanks!

Hello grandles,

As far as I have been able to discover, the most recent report which
covers the whole UK business information market is the one produced by
KeyNote in 1998.  However, there is also a free report on UK
publishing as a whole:“Publishing in the Knowledge Economy. A
Competitiveness Analysis of the UK Publishing Media Sector”, which was
produced in Juine 2002 by PIRA for the Department of Trade and
Industry.  This contains figures for the online business information
sector, and also has some discussion about business magazines and
directories, which might contain some useful information.

From these two sources, I obtained the following figures, which I hope
will give you what you need:

1. “Key Note estimates that the UK business information market was
worth £3.89bn in 1997, having grown by 11.1% in the year. Since 1993,
the market has increased by 74.9%…  In constant price terms, the
market rose by 8.4% in 1997 and by 59.2% between 1993 and 1997… The
largest sector of the UK business information market is market data.
This includes items like trade magazines and newspapers, and accounts
for 59.7% of the total. Financial data is the next largest, taking
24.9% of the market, with company data the smallest sector, accounting
for 15.4% of the total….  Between 1998 and 2002, Key Note expects the
business information market to grow by around 48.3% at current prices,
or by 34.5% at constant 1993 prices.”

From a summary of Business Information in the UK Market Review, Key
Note Publications Ltd, August 1998
http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reportinfo.asp?cat_id=2&report_id=3520
 A full copy is available for 594 euro. (£371, $555)

This was the most recent report on this topic available at
researchandmarkets.com and also at www.the-list.co.uk

However, it looks as if the projected growth has not taken place
judging from this sentence in a news item from 2002: “Hemscott
currently has only a 0.6% share of the UK business information market,
which is worth over £300m.”
http://www.cityequities.com/company_reports/Hemscott_plc.asp

2.  The UK is the largest market in Europe for online business
information with a 38.9% share, compared to France at 18.3%, Germany
at 17.9% and Italy at 7.7%. The UK online business information market
is estimated at £283 million and £297 million in 2000 and 2001,
respectively.

These data are in a report produced by PIRA for the Department of
Trade and Industry in June 2001. The full report, which also has
information on the market for business magazines, directories, etc, is
available at no charge in pdf format at
http://www.dti.gov.uk/cii/services/contentindustry/competitive_analysis.shtml

Search strategy on Google: "business information market” worth UK £

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Clarification of Answer by tehuti-ga on 06 Dec 2002 11:17 PST

Hello grandles, your clarification came in simultaneously with me
posting my answer. I was therefore not aware that you had already seen
the Keynote report.  I hope that the PIRA one for the DTI will be of
help and count as a satisfactory answer.

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Clarification of Answer by tehuti-ga on 09 Dec 2002 14:45 PST

Hello grandles,

The £300 million refers to _online_ information, while the £3.89
billion refers to the totality of online and paper resources.

The sources found are very useful but the answer itself is a little
ambiguous. Is the market worth £300 million or £3.89 billion? Reading
between the lines I can piece together what I needed to know. Many
thanks.

Hi!

This is a rather dated report so I won't post it as an answer but it
may still be of some use to you.

"Business Information in the UK Market Review" (1987)
http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reportinfo.asp?cat_id=&report_id=3520