In the Future, Your Data Is More Valuable Than Gold

Although future travel doesn’t yet exist, it's quite clear that the following statement is aging like fine wine: your data is more valuable than gold.

Whether you’re a researcher, a small business owner, or a cog in a multi-billion dollar company, one thing is for sure: data-driven decisions are pushing you to new heights. In this article, we’ll walk through the recent years where data extraction has exploded, some methods used, and where it’s likely to head.

The Explosion

Over recent years, we’ve seen an exponential increase in data collection, transformation, and aggregation. DaaS (Data as a service) is the currency powering the decisions behind everything we do, see, and buy. Even without you knowing, your divisions are being influenced by the data.

The rise in LLM (Large Language Models) and their counterparts like ChatGPT, Claude, XAI, and Gemini are all fed in the same way. Consuming data by the petabyte (which, if you didn’t know, 1 PB is the equivalent of 39 years of streamed HD video or 200 million MP3 songs) these models require an unthinkable amount of data to be constantly fed to them as they are trained. All data fed is scraped from the farthest and darkest corners of the web, all for you to open an LLM and ask it what is the recipe for a chocolate cake.

Furthermore, businesses are relying increasingly on data-driven insights to push strategic and competitive decisions and keep them on the competitive knife edge. Without these data-pointed decisions, a business in today's market can disappear as quickly as it started. Web scraping is here to stay, for better or for worse.

A study conducted at the very beginning of this year in 2025 by Research Nester valued the web scraping market at almost $704 million, expected to reach around $783 million in 2025 and then rocket to $3.5 billion and beyond in 2037. Throughout all industries, from aerospace to healthcare, data is loaded into pipelines to be analyzed, and systems are built around and on.

What is Web Scraping?

In its simplest form, web scraping is the process of using bots and other automated tools to scour web pages, collecting and storing vast amounts of data in databases or other formats like JSON. From this, the data collected can be analyzed and put to good use.

Web scraping is everywhere and often silent. As it grows, so does the wariness of it. Not everyone wants their data collected and stored elsewhere. But, if it's on the internet, it will be scraped one way or another. Scraping gets a bad name, but really, there’s an argument for both sides of the coin.

Over recent years, we’ve seen a “David and Goliath” style fight between industry giants Bright Data and Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Threads), with Meta looking to pursue BrightData for the mass scraping and selling of Instagram data. Bright Data claimed they scraped publicly available data, but Meta accused otherwise.

Bright Data sold this “publicly available” information for $860,000.

The accused sold a huge dataset of over 615 million records (containing information such as names, profile images, emails, etc.). It’s worth noting that Meta is known for litigation against scrapers; see more here.

But what made the data valuable is it identified you. If you can be identified, you can be profiled, and that's where the true value comes in. These profiles make you easily targetable by tools like the hyper-personalisation of advertising. The ads target you based on who you are, what you do, and all your other preferences.

On the other hand, web scraping brings tools to make our lives easier. Apps such as SkyScanner to find the cheapest flights, Trainline to find the cheapest or most time-suitable trains, and MoneySuperMarket to compare insurance and services are all built from scrapers. These systems aggregate the data, scraping it from host sites and bringing it into one easy platform. Essentially, this is exactly what Rampage does with its residential proxy services, but more on that later.

As web scraping continues to evolve, it fuels the exponential growth of data, turning vast amounts of publicly available information into actionable insights. This surge of data allows businesses to make more informed, strategic decisions, directly increasing their competitiveness and profitability.

Where Data Gets Its Value

Data increases in value as the world becomes more interconnected and intertwined with technology. Everything around us is being collected, stored, and analyzed. If you’re a Spotify user, you’ll be familiar with their “wrapped.” At the end of each year, a fun slideshow of statistics based on your listening preferences and behaviors is shared, all for you to compare with friends, like this:

These fun little “minigames” make listening fun, increase customer satisfaction, and reduce membership churn.

The sharp rise in the use of “AI’ (MLMs) makes it easier than ever for people to learn to code and begin to collect data for themselves. In a matter of minutes, the knowledge of scraping can be bought right to you- thanks to the likes of ChatGPT or more. Even if you’re not a webmaster, web scraping APIs turn the task of collecting (relatively) any data you need into a task that lasts a matter of minutes.

Tools such as Zyte make extracting data from websites a breeze by taking all the coding out of the equation. With these accelerations, data collection is skyrocketing, making it easier than ever to collect web data at scale.

But what makes what is collected valuable? Reliability. Data uncovers patterns and trends; it's what you will use to make decisions- and make them reliable. The most easily understandable use case can be applied to the advertising industry. For example, a sample data set from Instagram of all those who follow cookery communities; it’s safe to say those people may be interested in cooking. This makes them perfect targets for adverts for cooking products or shows as opposed to advertising to a mass, uninformed audience.

Data reliability means the reliability of your decisions without incurring large A/B tests or the cost of un-doing previous work. Reliability increases consistency, which in turn drives success. Being able to consistently appeal to and concentrate on a specific audience or segment helps ensure what you’re doing is on the right track to it being the most efficient and relevant end.

Ultimately, data can sometimes be referred to as the new oil: low value until refined.

After all, how frustrating is it to be constantly advertised a product you aren’t interested in?

We’ve previously discussed browser fingerprinting and how it’s used to build a profile of you, an individual, and its use case. If you’re interested in finding out another way your data is used against you, you can take a read-through here.

Data is everywhere and in everything we do. It’s not just being used to hyper-personalise your adverts. Data transforms all aspects of businesses. In the last 10 years, even a 180-year-old company Jon Deere has started to transform how farmers planted and protected their crops- collecting information and transforming it into plans with AI and machine learning called “Farm Forward Vision.” This technology used the data collected from sensors on farms to judge:

• Crop or pest infestations
• Optimize planting planning and arrangement.
• Finding the perfect seed planting depth based on historical yields and data

And what built all of these insights? Data collected from farms around the world. Boosting crop yield, fighting plant diseases, and ultimately driving profit- all derivatives of data. In this case, data becomes actionable insights to drive a business.

Finance giant PayPal is watching every transaction, building patterns of money movement to increase their fraud detection and keep your cash safe. Netflix is building algorithms based on your watch history, carefully tailoring your recommendations and their next production based on their audience's watch. Amazon ensures its warehouses are built strategically, putting your house in the prime position to receive parcels the quickest.

Everything we do paints a picture. One that, at first glance, may seem abstract and fragmented. But in the right hands, that picture transforms into something immensely valuable. Like gold buried deep underground, data in its unrefined state holds little obvious worth. Its true value emerges when it’s shaped into insights that drive customer satisfaction, reduce churn, streamline operations, and sharpen business strategies. These indirect gains compound, turning seemingly ordinary data into a powerful, intangible asset.

Just as gold is mined and refined, data must be collected, analyzed, and applied to unlock its full potential, proving that, in today’s world, the data is worth more than gold.

Closing Thoughts

In the end, this will only get bigger. The more we connect and rely on online services, the more our footsteps are traced.

The good news? As data collection increases, so does our quality of life. The better tailored and optimized the services that we use and interact with, the happier we are, and so, the data’s inherited value appears.

As data collection increases, so does the requirement for the services behind it. What powers all the web scrapers? Proxies. Proxies are the gateway to unlocking the web, allowing data collection from anywhere at any time. Ramage proxies streamline access to residential proxies, providing access to 10 of the largest residential proxy vendors on the market (including the likes of Bright Data, Oxylabs, Smartproxy, and IProyal) through a single dashboard without any contracts or commitments.

Gone are the days of sourcing the best proxies for the task- we’ve done it for you. Scrape the web without restrictions using our proxies, avoid blocks and bans, and collect all the data you need. Learn more about the services we provide here.