What if you could monitor the goods and raw materials that any company imports the day it crosses customs? At first glance ImportGenius, a startup out of Arizona, doesn’t sound particularly exciting: It’s a website that tracks the import/export activity at America’s shipping docks. But according to ImportGenius’s Managing Director Ryan Petersen, this is the first service of its kind, and one that has no shortage of potential applications.
Every shipping vessel that enters and leaves the United States is required to submit shipping records that document its cargo. Most of these documents are a matter of public record - you could look up the information yourself if you wanted to. But there are millions of such documents submitted each year, with no searchable index, making the data practically useless.
Until now. ImportGenius has licensed import/export data form a number of sources (along with free sources like US Customs), which is added to a database that is updated daily. For a monthly fee ($99 for standard access, $250 for premium) users can search through the data, allowing them to identify criteria including the class of cargo, the company involved, and the point of origin.
When the site first launched six months ago, ImportGenius was primarily a tool for small importer/exporters that wanted to see what their competitors were up to. Rival companies could keep tabs on which factories were being used, or how much demand there was for a given product. While this market has taken off, there are a number of other possible (and more exciting) uses for the data.
Earlier this week ImportGenius analyzed Apple’s current shipping records to deduce that unusually large shipments of “electronic computers” (a classification that Apple has never used) have been arriving this spring. This isn’t exactly surprising, but it serves to make a good point: No matter how secretive a company is about its products, it still has to keep accurate shipping records.
Stock analysts have been keeping a close eye on the data - if they can establish a trend between revenues and imports, they could potentially evaluate a company’s earnings long before its quarterly press release (which could obviously turn the stock market on its head). Other companies have been using it to enforce copyright protection. Rather than simply attacking a criminal merchant of counterfeit goods, these companies can hunt down the factory where the goods originated. The data has also been used in a number of lawsuits.
We should note that this kind of data isn’t going to be useful for security purposes - the US Customs office has invested in a $15 Billion tracking system that (hopefully) leaves this one in the dust.
Cool. But based on previous track records, if a government has spent $15 billion on something, I don’t share your hope that it will be much better.
yeah yeah.. genius.
Now here’s a way they could make big bucks: create pay-to-use APIs to license their data to developers for their apps.
http://www.z-portal.uni.cc/
If the data is indeed available for free, you can bet there is someone who will reorganize it, and offer a product similar for free. soon.
@e fall
From what I gather most of it is free, but they are using (paid) licenses to access a number of databases that analyze it.
Boy can I think of a lot of things you could do with that data. It’s actually a little frightening if you think about it. For example, how many Russian and Chinese made weapons are coming into the country? Gun control advocates might find this useful. Frankly I think there will be lawsuits about this as it’s business intelligence which could be considered trade secrets.
BTW, are there computers that are not ‘electronic’? Abacuses maybe?
Well one might also look at what this place has a similar market, but covers air, trucking, sea, etc.
http://www.freightdesk.com/
I think best thing ImportGenius could do would be to open up an API and set of web services to set them apart and let developers create mashups. The one I mentioned above has a lock on the data as well and also a lock on the government marketplace so it seems from their front page bolstering.
“No matter how secretive a company is about its products, it still has to keep accurate shipping records.”
So if you really want to be secretive, you don’t manufacture overseas. What a surprising twist that could result in at least some small increase in domestic manufacturing!
This sounds like it could be a superb tool for investigative journalists. Assuming they can afford to pay the $250/mo for database access, that is.
sounds a great product for organised crime too. From that apple story you can easily work out where 44 container loads of new i-phones must be sitting. Link it to google maps , hey presto.
This is a great concept, especially for businesses that live and die on margins through their supply chain. If your competitor is sourcing something far cheaper than you, you need to know about it.
I’ll set my self apart from the usual comments here - they doesn’t need to make APIs to let developers mash up the data. It has a very clear value proposition for real businesses. Making money does have it’s benefits.
Mr. Kincaid has more faith in large government IT projects than many. From what we keep reading, billions of dollars in development costs only create lawsuits and reorgs. Your tax dollars at play.
This is the kind of disruptive app that is likely to have high impact. More and more the real action will be in the use of disruptive technologies in industries that having noting directly to do with tech. All knowledge based industries will be disrupted. It is nice to see that TechCrunch is paying attention.
“the US Customs office has invested in a $15 Billion tracking system that (hopefully) leaves this one in the dust.”
Hehe, key word there is definitely “hopefully”…
Don’t you people know that much of the paperwork for shipments are falsified? Freight forwarders who will turn a blind eye are a dime a dozen…as are corrupt customs officials.
See you at the docks tonight, Mr. Arrington.
Perhaps one street smart founder can add more value with a team of 15 guys than the US Customs office with a $15,000,000,000 budget
Don´t worry, it will be available soon for free.
“We should note that this kind of data isn’t going to be useful for security purposes - the US Customs office has invested in a $15 Billion tracking system that (hopefully) leaves this one in the dust.”
Fascinating news for a data geek like myself but what is it that Customs is tracking that’s any better?
From what I understand, you can only know what somebody’s actually moving if you look inside the boxes via tech or human surveillance.
Self reported data does not lead to a secure system.
US Customs is as pathetically incapable of meeting our security needs as were those clowns who killed New Orleans.
Riffing on the new iPhone is neat marketing gimmick to be sure, but by no means is ImportGenius the only company out there:
“But according to ImportGenius’s Managing Director Ryan Petersen, this is the first service of its kind, and one that has no shortage of potential applications.”
Either he’s being disingenuous or his competitive intel ain’t so good.
Back in June 2005 MinnesotaBusiness Magazine, where I was previously editor, we ran a story on Zepol. Founded in 2002, it offers pretty similar services on a subscription basis. According to their website, Zepol.com, the company’s database contains 58,956,000 total shipments.
It’s useful !!