Data in the Digital Economy: Why Must It Become an Economic Asset Rather Than a Side Effect in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia?

Data in the Digital Economy: Why Must It Become an Economic Asset Rather Than a Side Effect in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia?

In the early stages of digital expansion, data often appears to be something secondary that accumulates quietly in the background. A customer enters, a service is delivered, a platform grows, and behind all of that a silent layer of information begins to form: patterns of demand, purchasing behavior, recurrence of use, indicators of quality, shifts in preference, and invisible maps of the market. In many environments, this layer is treated as an operational side effect rather than part of value itself. But economies that have matured digitally no longer accept this simplified reading. It has become clear that data is not merely a leftover of activity. It is a storable resource, an input into production, and an intangible asset with real economic value. OECD explicitly conceptualizes data as an intangible asset that contributes to production, even if its treatment in traditional economic statistics remains incomplete. 

This is why the question the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia needs to ask is not: how do we collect more data?
The real question is: how do we make data a genuine economic asset inside the digital economy, rather than leaving it as a side effect that accumulates without reading, use, or measurement?

This question follows directly from the seventh topic in the series. After establishing that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia should not settle for selling digital services alone but should build digital assets, the next logical step is to focus on one of the most important of those assets: data. In many cases, data is not just one component of a digital asset. It is the material from which the asset is built, or the structure that allows a service to become an asset, and activity to become accumulated value.

Why Is Data No Longer Just a Side Effect?

Because the digital economy no longer moves only through infrastructure, applications, platforms, or visible services. It also moves through the information generated by those structures and the value extracted from that information. Once data is understood in this way, its place changes completely. It is no longer:

• a secondary record, 
• or a technical archive, 
• or a residual by-product of activity. 

It becomes:

• an input into production, 
• an intangible asset, 
• a basis for sharper decisions, 
• a foundation for product development, 
• and a source of more sustainable competitive advantage. 

This is not rhetorical. WIPO places data within the broader category of intangible assets alongside software, design, brands, and organizational capital, and shows that better measurement of such assets helps close important policy and statistical gaps. It also notes that software and databases have been among the fastest-growing categories of intangible assets in recent years. 

Treating data only as a side effect therefore means allowing a growing share of modern economic value to pass by without giving it a proper place in measurement, planning, or accumulation.

What Does It Mean to Say That Data Is an Economic Asset?

It does not merely mean that data is “important.” That phrase is too weak.
What it means is that data, once collected, structured, quality-controlled, and connected to economic use, functions like a serious asset:

• it remains after activity, 
• it can be reused, 
• it improves decision-making, 
• it raises productivity, 
• and it can support products, services, and long-term value creation. 

OECD goes beyond broad language and places data inside an economic framework suitable for measurement. It also stresses that data does not create value automatically. It needs governance, analytics, and complementary capabilities that turn raw information into actual economic effect. That is why the core point of this article is simple: data is not an asset merely because it exists, but because it can be organized, measured, linked to value, and turned into knowledge, products, or strategic advantage. 

Why Does This Matter for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia?

Because the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is not simply building an economy that uses digital tools. It is deepening a digital economy within a broader national project led by Vision 2030. The digital economy in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is no longer marginal. The General Authority for Statistics reported that it accounted for 16.0% of GDP in 2024, up from 15.6% in 2023, with the broad digital economy representing the largest share of that contribution. That means digital activity already has visible official weight, and the question is no longer whether it exists, but what kind of value it creates and how that value is retained and measured. 

In this context, data becomes part of the economic question itself. If the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia wants to deepen its digital economy, strengthen its non-oil economy, and improve the quality of value generated by services, platforms, freelance work, and digital trade, then it cannot treat data as an archive. It must treat it as part of the assets that improve markets, sharpen services, support product creation, clarify value chains, and enable stronger public and private decision-making.

What Does the Chinese Lens Add?

The Chinese lens, used here in its strategic rather than imitative sense, reminds us that data is not merely a technical file attached to market activity. It is part of the economic structure of the state and part of its ability to plan, position itself, and expand. The point is not to import any one model. The point is to understand that an economy that does not see its data as part of its economic structure remains weaker in forward planning and weaker in turning digital activity into accumulated strategic strength.

From this angle, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia should not only collect data inside institutions, platforms, and activities. It should connect that data to wider questions:

• what does it reveal about market direction? 
• which sectors are expanding fastest? 
• where are the real skills gaps? 
• where is value concentrating? 
• and what can move from service into product, asset, or scalable opportunity? 

This lens lifts the discussion from “data is useful” to “data is part of the state’s economic backbone.”

What Does the Japanese Lens Add?

The Japanese lens adds something equally important:
moving from “data” to “asset” does not happen through slogans or abrupt conceptual jumps. It happens through disciplined, gradual construction. There is a major difference between an economy declaring that data is an economic asset and an economy building the conditions that make that declaration true in practice. The practical questions are:

• is data collection organized? 
• is quality improving? 
• is classification clear? 
• can the data be reused? 
• is it linked to readable economic activity? 
• can it appear in measurement, planning, or product development? 

The Japanese lesson here is not “move slowly.” It is: do not declare the result before building the conditions that produce it. That matters greatly for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia if it wants data to become a real economic asset rather than a bright phrase.

What Does the Australian/American Measurement Lens Add?

This lens points to the core weakness that often distorts the discussion:
talking about value without a framework for measurement.
Saying that data is an economic asset is not enough unless we also ask:

• how will we measure that asset? 
• by investment? 
• by its impact on productivity? 
• by its ability to improve decision-making, pricing, or innovation? 
• or by its role as an intangible asset retained inside institutions and platforms? 

OECD itself notes that the measurement of data assets and data flows is still developing, and that clearer statistical guidance remains a major task ahead. This aligns with the Australian/American lesson: do not build a large economic narrative without a measurable structure beneath it. 

For the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, this means that maturity in this file will not come from theoretical recognition alone. It will come from developing a clearer language that distinguishes between:

• data that remains a flow of information, 
• data that rises to the level of an asset, 
• data that creates repeated economic effect, 
• and data that remains limited in operational impact. 

What Does the European Lens Add?

The European lens adds a crucial point that cannot be ignored:
data is not only an economic matter; it is also a matter of governance, regulation, transparency, and statistical visibility.
This matters because platforms and digital markets use data not only to improve performance, but also to organize access, allocate visibility, shape pricing, rank opportunities, and sometimes make automated decisions with real market consequences.

That is why turning data into an economic asset in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia should not become a purely commercial project. It must also pass through:

• clearer governance, 
• stronger transparency, 
• greater trust, 
• and a framework that makes data economically legible inside policy and statistics. 

If governance is ignored, data may remain a private source of power inside platforms and institutions without becoming readable national economic value. But if governance is improved, data becomes a more mature economic asset rather than a closed stock of information.

What Do Economies Lose When They Ignore Data?

When economies neglect data, they lose more than unused information.

First, they lose market clarity. Good data reveals what is most demanded, what is growing fastest, where contracts recur, which sectors generate the highest value, and how producers and users are changing.

Second, they lose the chance to turn activity into assets. Thousands of services and transactions may take place, but without organizing the data they leave behind, the opportunity to transform it into products, tools, pricing logic, or repeatable knowledge disappears.

Third, they lose part of local retained value. If data remains a technical residue, then a significant share of value generated inside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia may never appear properly in national economic understanding or indicators.

Fourth, they lose planning quality. A digital economy that does not rely on readable and measurable data remains more vulnerable to uncertainty in decision-making.

Fifth, they lose competitiveness. In advanced digital environments, data is not only for reporting. It is for innovation, product refinement, operational efficiency, and durable market advantage.

How Does Data Move from By-Product to Economic Asset?

This does not happen through storage alone. Nor does it happen simply because databases become large. It happens when data passes through four stages:

1) Organized collection
Data must be gathered through a clear logic rather than random accumulation.

2) Quality and classification
Poor or inconsistent data does not create an asset. What creates an asset is consistency, accuracy, relational value, and usability in economic and analytical work.

3) Transformation into knowledge
Once data is used to understand markets, improve services, sharpen decisions, and refine products, it leaves the category of archive and enters the category of asset.

4) Connection to value
Only when data becomes part of a service, a digital asset, an investment decision, a competitive tool, or productivity improvement can we say that it has become a real economic asset rather than a side effect.

What Is the Link to Freelance Work and Digital Services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia?

The link is direct.
In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a large share of new economic data is generated by:

• platforms, 
• digital services, 
• flexible contracts, 
• technical and creative work, 
• digital trade, 
• and broader market activity driven by digitization. 

This means freelance work and digital services generate not only income, but also market and operational knowledge of real value. That value disappears, however, if it is treated only as a background trace. Freelancers, platforms, clients, and systems all leave behind:

• patterns of demand, 
• transaction recurrence, 
• pricing behavior, 
• sectoral needs, 
• skills gaps, 
• and opportunities to turn services into products. 

This is why data becomes the natural bridge between topic seven and topic eight in the series: if digital assets are what we aim to build, then data is one of the most important materials from which those assets are formed.

How Does This Support the Non-Oil Economy in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia?

Because the non-oil economy does not need only more activity. It needs higher-quality value creation. Once data becomes an economic asset, it raises:

• market efficiency, 
• service quality, 
• product-development capacity, 
• value-chain understanding, 
• and the quality of investment and operational decisions. 

In that sense, data is not simply a supporting technical feature. It becomes a real contributor to deepening the non-oil economy in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Recent UNCTAD work also reinforces the point that e-commerce and digitally delivered services are among the fastest-growing components of the global economy, while major statistical gaps remain. That makes the data question even more important, not less. 

How Should the Place of Data Be Understood at This Stage?

If digital services create visible economic movement, data is often the deeper layer that gives that movement its real economic meaning. The problem is not that data is absent. The problem is that too much of it is still treated as an operational trace rather than as part of value itself.

The question is therefore not only how much data is produced inside the digital economy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, but how it is seen. Is it read as a background effect that accompanies services, platforms, and freelance work? Or is it treated as economic material capable of organization, analysis, reuse, and conversion into knowledge, products, tools, and long-term advantage? The answer determines whether data remains a silent technical burden or becomes a real economic asset that deepens the digital economy.

Conclusion

Data in the digital economy is not the shadow of activity. In many cases, it is one of its most accumulable cores. Economies that treat data only as a side effect may see movement, but miss a large share of value. Economies that treat it as an economic asset see in it:

• knowledge, 
• value, 
• developmental capacity, 
• and the basis for better products, services, and policies. 

That is why the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia does not need only a larger digital economy. It needs a deeper one—an economy that understands that some of its most important assets are not always visible on the surface, but are generated in the background and then become part of the real structure of value.

The question that should govern this stage is therefore not:
how do we collect more data?

It is:
how does the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia turn digital data into a readable, measurable, retained economic asset inside the national economy?