Wong Kah Wei, Hon Sui Sen Memorial Library

Hon Sui Sen Memorial Library had recently subscribed to two Web databases containing market share data of various industries around the world. These Web databases are TableBase and Promt.

TableBase

TableBase provides market share, company and brand rankings, industry and product forecasts, production and consumption statistics, imports and exports, usage and capacity, number of users/outlets, and trends in tabular form. That's right—data presented as tables. Users looking for raw information on market share would find this a useful database. The sources of data are indicated clearly and the tables are all in text format. A user can search the data by industries, by concept term (for example, market share, ranking, forecasts), by company name, by country, by SIC codes and by product codes. Data is obtained from over 1,000 publications, privately published statistical annuals, trade associations, government agencies, non-profit research groups, and industry reports prepared by investment research groups. The database is updated weekly and is produced by Responsive Database Services Inc.

Promt

Promt (Predicast Overview of Markets & Technologies) is produced by the Gale Group. How is Promt different from TableBase? Promt contains abstracts and full text articles. Not just tables of data but the reviews and analyses of the data collected. These articles contain data on market share and size, industry trends, emerging technologies and competitive opportunities. Although, the content coverage seem to focus on industries in the United States of America, a quick search on the term market share in Asia revealed over 30 records. The data is obtained from over 1,000 US and international business and trade journals, industry newsletters, newspapers, market research studies, news releases, investment and brokerage firm reports. Promt is updated weekly.