what I mean by a data-driven economy The world’s biggest hotel company is Airbnb and they don’t own any hotels. The world’s largest retailer is Alibaba and they don’t own any stores. The world’s largest car rental company is Uber and they don’t own any cars. So, what do these organizations own? They own data. Uber knows very little about you. They know that you’re on a street corner and they know you need to get from here to there; they know your credit card number. In this new economic environment, with that very small amount of data, Uber can build a multi billion dollar business.