The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that leverage Big data
Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 2
SWOT Analysis .......................................................................................................................................... 3
What does TWC Data Pool Look Like ................................................................................................ 4
Problem Statement ........................................................................................................................................ 4
Potential Business Transformation ............................................................................................................. 4
Competitive Market ............................................................................................................................ 5
B2B Data Utilization Potential .......................................................................................................... 6
Monetization................................................................................................................................................. 7
Potential Revenue.................................................................................................................................... 7
System Flows .............................................................................................................................................. 8
WTC & Travel Agency Interaction ....................................................................................................... 8
Travel Agent Interaction with ‘Enabled for the Best’ Management System .................................. 9
Citations: ................................................................................................................................................ 10
MARY CHARLES-OLIMENE G2022/MBA/SCMGT/UPBS/017
The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that leverage Big data
Introduction
The Weather Channel (TWC) was launched on May 2, 1982, as a 20-hour Weather Forecast TV Channel.
Similar to the disruption created by the movement from print to digital books, audio cd’s to the downloadable
mp3’s and DVD’s to streaming video, weather consumption was moving quickly from TV to the smartphone.
Nielsen reported that the network averaged a five-year low of 211,000 daily viewers in 2013, down from
273,000 in 2012. Due to the consumer’s behavioral change, TWC looked for business opportunities to
leverage its data. In 2012, the organization formed a holding company with a broader spectrum of services
and replaced the word “Channel” with “Company” to reflect its growing lineup of new digital products.
Currently, IBM owns The Weather Company (TWC), and the TWC’s network of over 100 MLN in 2013.
Now that public weather datasets were becoming available, how would TWC be able to maintain its competitive
advantage with its weather-centric running app? How exclusive was the weather content? As well as location and
weather, what other data could TWC incorporate into the OutSider app to make it the go-to running app and a
source of premium advertising revenue?
MARY CHARLES-OLIMENE G2022/MBA/SCMGT/UPBS/017
The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that leverage Big data
SWOT Analysis
OPPORTUNITES THREATS
TWC can expand the existing market further to the international TWC needs to capitalize on existing strengths
market platform. TWC Data has built relationships with various and analyze the current trend while building
government agencies over the years and they have a head start strategies and processes to expand and
compared to new business starting from the ground up penetrate business and consumer markets
TW owns intellectual property rights on different patents and TWC faces ongoing changes in government
STRENGHTS innovation that gives them a competitive advantage regulations, consumer market adjustments
and business demands which because of
progress in technology, IT competitors may
drop the price value
TWC can develop artificial intelligence(AI) to provide service to niche
segments and have a more accurate prediction model to provide
better recommendations for B2B markets
TWC is coming into the IT industry as a different type of business, TWC weather should transform an existing
lacking previous experience and additional financial resources. database into service to rise above the
competition and focus on eliminating
business and strategy related weaknesses.
The TWC business model involves patents, copyrights, government
WEAKNESSES regulations and policies, creating a work environment that may cause
regulatory constraints that encourage a lack of potential creative
business solutions and limited value propositions leading to a low ROI
Coming late to the IT game has meant TWC is playing catch up with
already existing solutions such as machine learning and AI modeling
better predictions.
MARY CHARLES-OLIMENE G2022/MBA/SCMGT/UPBS/017
The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that leverage Big data
What does TWC Data Pool Look Like
General Weather Physical Health Temperature Precipitation
Sunrise/Sunset Time Air quality Index Historical Average Lighting/Thunder
Sunny Clouds UV Light Index Current Temperature Rain/Snow
Air Pressure Highest/Lowest Humidity
Problem Statement
The Weather Company’s first attempt to utilize data as a business via Outsider app with leveraging their
weather information was not successful. The Weather Company (TWC) needs to find new opportunities
tailored to B2B markets utilizing their Weather Forecast Data and it’s business logistics.
Potential Business Transformation
Weather is a crucial factor that can influence business revenue. TWC has a lot of environmental
information that can be monetized and packaged as-tailored to the business solution:
1. Communicate alerts
2. Suggest business-related actions based on the forecast
3. Predict potential business opportunities
4. Prevent business losses
The solution enables businesses to input their data in correlation to the weather points and to
receive real-time weather information translated into their business language, weather alerts and
predictions, business-related decisions, and business analysis in retrospect.
MARY CHARLES-OLIMENE G2022/MBA/SCMGT/UPBS/017
The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that leverage Big data
Competitive Market
Cost Android Audio Coach/Personal Trainer Route Map Social Sharing Gamification
OutSider Free
Endomondo Free X X X X
Sports Tracker
Get running $2.99 X X X
(Couch to 5K)
Map by Run by Free X X X X
Map my Fitness
Nike + Running Free X X X
Runtastic Pro by Free X X X X
Runtastic
MARY CHARLES-OLIMENE G2022/MBA/SCMGT/UPBS/017
The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that leverage Big data
B2B Data Utilization Potential
MARY CHARLES-OLIMENE G2022/MBA/SCMGT/UPBS/017
The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that leverage Big data
How could TWC continue to leverage mobile apps to further monetize its significant investment in its weather
data? What additional mobile use cases should they pursue? Why?
Monetization
The case demonstrates a Travel Agency system integrated with Weather Data API to receive
weather forecasts and adjust trip activities. ‘Enabled for the Best’, a management system for
Travel Agents and related business activities is proposed
The Travel Agency system will offer multiple plans based on the number of active trips that travel
agencies handle per month:
Home Based Agency Single Location Agency Agency with Branches
Up to 50 trips per month Up to 250 trips per month More than 250 trips per month
$90.00 per month $400.00 per month Customizable
Weather Data API charges customers based on the load from their systems. The Travel Agency
system tracks weather for every active trip and updates atmospheric information every 5 minutes
to offer recommendations. By doing so, users with a “Home Based Agency” plan will generate
less traffic than users with the “Agency with Branches” program because they have less number
of active trips.
Potential Revenue
Let us consider users with the Home Based Agency plan and assess estimated revenue.
Home Based agencies and individual agents had an average revenue of $710,000 in 2016 [1].
If the average vacation for a family of 4 costs about $4,580 [2], each Home Based agency organized
about 157 trips per year, 13 visits per month.
MARY CHARLES-OLIMENE G2022/MBA/SCMGT/UPBS/017
The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that leverage Big data
Assuming that the Travel Agency system updates weather data every 5 minutes per active trip, a
single user with the “Home Based Agency” plan will generate 13 trips * 12 requests per hour * 24
hours * 30 days = 112,320 requests per month.
According to the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2022, the number of
employed agents was 53,180 [3].
If 60% of all agents will have accounts in the Travel Agency system, the entire load to the
Weather Data API will be 112,320 requests per month * 31,908 = 3,583,906,560 requests per
month.
Weather Data API revenue over all home based agencies will be:
Home Based Agency
Up to 50 trips per month
$90.00 per month
System Flows
WTC & Travel Agency Interaction
MARY CHARLES-OLIMENE G2022/MBA/SCMGT/UPBS/017
The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that leverage Big data
Travel Agent Interaction with ‘Enabled for the Best’ Management
System
Should The Weather Company expand its efforts developing consumer apps, or should it focus on its
professional services division, offering weather and biometeorological analytics to its business
customers? Could they effectively do both?
I beleive they should do both. They have been doing b2b business in the past so they already got some
experience and figured out the stable revenue stream from their business partners. Right now the
customer app market is promising, and revenue potential is much larger than only doing the b2b.
Therefore, I suggest the company to do both.
MARY CHARLES-OLIMENE G2022/MBA/SCMGT/UPBS/017
The Weather Company: Creating Consumer Apps that leverage Big data
Citations:
1. https://www.travelweekly.com/IndustrySurvey2017/introduction-breaking-law-of-
average )
2. https://www.creditdonkey.com/average-cost-vacation.html
3. https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes413041.html
MARY CHARLES-OLIMENE G2022/MBA/SCMGT/UPBS/017
