Data feed definition
Data feed refers to a stream of data provided at regular intervals or in real-time. While data feeds are most notably used by social media companies, they are prevalent in numerous industries from financial market information to e-commerce product updates.
See also: text data mining
Examples of data feed applications:
- Financial markets. Traders and investors receive real-time data feeds with the newest stock, bond, and commodity prices. Such feeds are essential for making timely investment decisions.
- E-commerce. Online shops can push data feeds to affiliate partners or advertising platforms to update product availability and prices.
- Advertising. Advertisers push data feeds to platforms like Google Ads to automatically update their advertising campaigns based on product availability or pricing. Then, platforms provide advertisers with key metrics like conversions to help optimize campaigns.
- Social media. Social media platforms use two types of data feeds. The first is the activity stream, offering real-time updates on user actions. But these companies can also provide businesses with data feeds containing insights about post engagement and audience demographics.
- Sports. Websites use data feeds to provide real-time scores and player statistics.
- Media. News organizations distribute their content in real-time to partner sites using data feeds, while streaming platforms may receive metadata about movies and shows helping improve recommendations.
