As global markets fragment and competition intensifies, intellectual property and information asymmetry are more important than physical scale
South Africans have long been taught to look beneath the earth for wealth, but the opportunity today lives above it, in spreadsheets, transaction logs, customer histories and mobile apps.
Data is one of today’s most valuable resources, but only a handful of businesses know how to convert it into commercial value.
The notion that data monetisation is a corporate game reserved for big banks, telecom giants and global tech firms is outdated. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are already generating raw data every day, but the problem is they simply haven’t recognised it as a tangible asset class.
As global markets fragment and competition intensifies, intellectual property and information asymmetry are more important than physical scale. Data provides SMEs with leverage and allows them to understand customers faster, personalise services better and compete beyond their size.
Globally, the data monetisation market is expanding at an extraordinary pace. Industry forecasts place its compound annual growth rate at around 26% over the last decade. While the direct tools-and-platform market is already worth tens of billions of dollars, the broader data economy, including analytics and AI-enabled services, is projected to exceed $800bn (R12.7-trillion) by 2030.
These institutions are growing because they understand, analyse and monetise digital behaviour. Yet smaller businesses often assume they have no data to monetise at all.
Even more revealing is how high-performing organisations are using data right now. Research from the MIT Centre for Information Systems Research, for example, shows that top-performing firms attribute roughly 11% of their revenue directly to data monetisation, while lower performers generate closer to 2%.
That is a fivefold gap and a huge lesson for South African SMEs. Data is not a by-product of doing business but an integral part of the business model, and we can already see this transition unfolding locally.
Telkom, for example, reported in its results for the first half of the 2026 financial year that data-related services accounted for 59.1% of group revenue, driven by double-digit growth in mobile and fibre data. Standard Bank too has disclosed a 28% increase in digital transactions, alongside continued growth in digitally active clients.
These institutions are growing because they understand, analyse and monetise digital behaviour. Yet smaller businesses often assume they have no data to monetise at all.
Matthew Bernath, a director at Alternata, one of the South African start-ups helping shape the country’s data monetisation ecosystem, argues that this is a costly misconception. SMEs, he notes, are already sitting on a minefield of insight: purchase histories, usage patterns, inventory cycles, geographic demand signals and customer segmentation intelligence.
The problem is that many SMEs don’t yet know how to keep their data consistent, structured or compliant.
Bernath also cautions that regulation is often misunderstood. The Protection of Personal Information Act, he explains, does not prohibit data monetisation; it prohibits the irresponsible monetisation of personal data. In practice, the law is pushing the market towards more ethical models built on aggregated, anonymised and insight-driven data products.
The problem is that many SMEs don’t yet know how to keep their data consistent, structured or compliant. They struggle to identify what is valuable and what is not, but these are solvable constraints.
Those SMEs that do have data usually sell the information to third parties, but the trick is to use it internally to increase margins and sharpen decision-making.
The real advantage lies in extracting strategic intelligence, not simply trading raw information for short-term cash. Research from PwC shows that organisations that treat data with leadership ownership and ethical oversight outperform peers in both revenue and valuation multiples.
Operational optimisation, predictive demand forecasting, dynamic pricing and personalised marketing are quick wins for any business using their data correctly. Data-driven personalisation alone has been shown to lift conversion rates, while supply chain analytics reduces waste and behavioural insight improves product-market fit.
Clear commercial objectives must follow; after all, data becomes more powerful when it is tied to outcomes.
For direct monetisation to become more accessible, though, we need better governance, including aggregated insights sold to industry partners, subscription-based dashboards, and embedded analytics within customer platforms.
SMEs need to know what data to collect, where and how to structure it and how to then analyse it to get the most out of it. Clear commercial objectives must follow; after all, data becomes more powerful when it is tied to outcomes. Imagine increasing revenue by 10%, reducing inventory costs by 5% and improving retention by three percentage points.
In South Africa, data monetisation is not fundamentally a technology story but rather a mindset shift. It requires entrepreneurs and business owners to treat information with the same seriousness as capital and labour. It demands better governance, compliance discipline and investment in analytics tools that are increasingly cloud-based and affordable.
But above all, it requires recognition. South African SMEs often debate access to finance, but data may be the most underpriced asset on their balance sheet. After all, in a week when the country gathered to talk about minerals in Cape Town, South Africa’s SMEs should remember they may already be sitting on a far richer seam of data.
Mtwentwe is MD of Vantage Advisory and host of the SAICABIZ Impact Podcast
