What does your company do and what is your USP?
To remain competitive and relevant, global brands need data, which is primarily sourced from the internet. Whether for price comparison purposes or checking other companies’ catalogues, a business must have open, unfettered access to the online domains holding this data.
Accessing this critical data is not that easy. Most of the time, if company #1 attempts to collect data at scale from company #2’s website, company #1 will either be blocked or served misleading content by #2. If the average consumer visits #2’s site, they will be able to view it with complete transparency. So, how can company #1 (and many others like it) leverage the kind of power held by consumers, and gain access to an open, honest internet?
Simple: an IP Proxy Network (IPPN). Luminati, the largest operator of this service, enables the leading retail brands, including Fortune 500 companies, the most prominent travel sites, and some of the most well-known names in security and advertising, to see the internet through the eyes of an average consumer.
We harness the power of 35 million IP addresses located in every corner of the world. Part of our global IPPN/ residential proxy network, these IP addresses belong to 35 million consumers, each of which has willingly opted in, in return for access to ad-free applications. Routing traffic via global consumers’ IP addresses grants our 10,000-plus customers an unrestricted, transparent view of the internet: just like the view seen by their own customers.
We’re also 100% transparent ourselves: Luminati requires clear explicit consent from its peer network, and we impose rigorous compliance procedures for all of our customers.
How do you deliver on this USP?
We make sure you never get blocked. A business using our IPPN can choose to view the internet (or domain) from a specific location, on a specific device and from a specific service provider.
Company #1 could, for example, check how a consumer in Brussels using an Android phone sees an e-commerce site’s catalogue, versus the view of a consumer in Bangkok browsing using their PC.
A consumer’s IP address is only used by our IPPN when their device is idle and with sufficient battery. However, the sheer scale of our global network means that brands can select from millions of specific IP addresses to collect online market intelligence, already available in the public domain, quickly and easily.
This market intelligence is priceless: brands require exact, real-time accurate information to make the best business decisions, price products and services competitively, and ultimately remain successful and competitive themselves.
How would you describe your vision?
As the inventor of the IPPN and a pioneer in the space, since its inception, Luminati has been committed to web transparency for the benefit of all of its customers, and all of its (consumer) customers worldwide.
Today, we continue to innovate and develop the kind of advanced technology required to maintain an open, transparent internet. We enable every one of our many and varied customers (from global enterprises to small start-ups) to view the internet through the eyes of real consumers (wherever and however these companies choose), lifting the internet veil that exists today.
How do you use emerging technology to support growth?
Luminati’s IPPN offers one of the only ways for retailers to manage the ever-evolving and data-laden internet space. Remaining competitive is dependent on intelligence collection, and with the scale of information on the internet ballooning, next-generation IPPN technology is crucial. We’re investing a lot to make sure our infrastructure can be easily integrated with retailers’ existing systems, meaning these companies can start gathering market intelligence as quickly as possible – and begin making more accurate business decisions.
We also design proprietary technology especially for online retailers, enabling them to collect large scale market intelligence with almost zero need to understand and conduct coding themselves. Our customers aren’t all data scientists and tech wizards, so our technology does the hard work for them and lets them focus on their own core business.
What do you see as challenges retailers and suppliers will face over the coming years? How are you prepared to meet those challenges?
Data is an opportunity, but also a major challenge. Businesses need to be able to wade through the huge amounts of irrelevant and inaccurate information online, and mine only the most valuable and relevant to their business.
Many retailers are already using sophisticated algorithms for automated product pricing, for example, meaning competitors must be equally fast and dynamic in gaining access to this information. There’s therefore a huge need for real time, pin-point, high-scale intelligence collection.
We’re always looking to the future, so our current focus is on addressing both the need for pin-point accuracy, and the need for speed. We’re working to optimise the speed at which each and every brand is able to access data at massive scale. Our expanding global network and dozens of daily software updates are evidence of our work to address this huge demand.
With years of industry experience, a rapidly developing network and innovators working continuously behind-the-scenes, Luminati stands in a unique position to foresee market trends and ensure every one of ours customers can collect competitive, accurate market intelligence quickly, at speed.
Luminati in brief
Founded: 2014
Headquarters: Netanya, Israel
Customers: 10,000
Employees: 120
Website: luminati.io
This Company Spotlight was produced by InternetRetailing and sponsored by Luminati. Funding articles in this way allows us to explore topics and present relevant services and information that we believe our readers will find of interest.
