A Random Observation on the BRICs

One of the markers of the digital/social media age has been not only the use of technology to reach people, but the use of technology to figure out what those people are doing and where they are doing it. It shouldn't be any surprise to our readers that websites track what users are viewing, where they are viewing it from and how often they are viewing it.

One great example in action many readers will be familiar with is the inevitable pop-up advertisements they will 'mysteriously' receive for product x, say cheap airfare, directly after running a search for, say, the Washington to New York shuttle. Taking it a step further, one of the reasons a site like Facebook is valued at over $50 billion is the potential ability it will give advertisers to tap directly into the 'likes' and friend connections of users, adding another, richer level of targets for marketing departments.


Many websites such as Blawgconomics utilize some of this data mining technology as well, albeit at a very simple level. As a site, we pride ourselves on remaining ad-free, but there are other uses for keeping tabs on where viewers are checking in from. For our purposes, the main use is to determine the impact of our past stories and guide the penning of future posts. For example, when we see that readers are coming to our site because we have posted information on state debt or solar power or federal budgets, it is a form of voting with the feet and an indication of what type of postings would continue to be most valuable to readers.

However, with this information readily at the fingertips, we often notice other interesting data points, even when we aren't looking for them (perhaps rendering them all the more interesting...). One such trend of note lately has been the number of readers who have been visiting the site from the BRIC countries. For those unfamiliar with the terminology, this is the appellation old Goldman Sachs hand Jim O'Neil gave to the large, populous and rapidly developing nations of Brazil, Russia, India and China about a decade ago.

The BRICs are coming...

We find this prevalence of visits to the site to be a fascinating indication, small sample set though it may be, of a desire for knowledge in these growing powers. If one considers that most of the information on the site is in English, which is clearly not the mother tongue of any of these nations, this conclusion can be even more strongly supported. For us, it is therefore an intriguing glimpse into a growing part of the global economy as well as another example of how the fruits of the digital age can impact the world.