Taylor Swift Concert Generates Nearly 30 Terabytes of Data: Why Are Data Volumes Constantly Increasing?

Taylor Swift's world tour is breaking records everywhere, in every sector. One of the major US mobile service providers, AT&T, recently reported that during Swift's Eras Tour concert in Arlington, Texas, 28.9 terabytes of data were transferred over its network at the venue alone, according to The Verge. Telecommunications estimates suggest that one terabyte can hold about 200,000 photos or 400 hours of video, meaning 28.9 TB equates to 5.8 million pictures or 11,560 hours of video footage. Considering the number of superstars globally and the content created in their wake, it's easy to reach astonishing amounts rapidly.

Image by Gabriel Doti from Pixabay.

In this context, it's no surprise that data volumes worldwide are constantly growing. Where once exchanges were made through calls or face-to-face, now real-time sharing of images and videos on social media (often on several platforms simultaneously) and directly to family or friends through messaging apps has become the norm.

International Data Corporation (IDC) has forecasted that by 2025, the global data volume will reach 175 zettabytes (1 ZB = one billion TB). "If you were to save 175 zettabytes of data on Blu-ray discs, you'd have 23 stacks of discs reaching from the Earth to the Moon," IDC Vice President David Reinsel tried to illustrate these staggering volumes. If saving 175 ZB of data on today's largest hard drives (the biggest SSD can hold 100 TB), it would take 1.75 billion such drives.

However, it's not just Taylor Swift driving these increased data volumes. Broadly, the growth in data volumes can be "blamed" on the internet and the rapid increase in internet users. Remember, every online action translates to data.

Video Applications Consume Nearly Three Quarters of Mobile Data Volume

Significant drivers of data volume growth are various video services and streaming platforms. Where once there were only three TV channels, now there are hundreds.

A global study published in January this year, which only considered mobile data usage, found that 71% of mobile data is used for video applications. Social networks ranked second, accounting for only nine percent of global mobile data volumes. These two categories, however, often overlap as videos are watched both through video applications and social networks.

Sandvine's latest Global Internet Phenomena report lists web applications generating the most downstream internet traffic worldwide (i.e., from central servers to user devices). It turns out that the streaming platform leader, Netflix, also dominates in data volumes, accounting for 14.9% of the world's downstream traffic. High-definition video transmission requires large data amounts, and Netflix has over 247.15 million subscribers (with potentially even more viewers).

YouTube isn't far behind, coming in second at 11.4%.

Besides streaming, significant downstream traffic comes from social media and games, with platforms like TikTok, Facebook, PlayStation, and Xbox being notable contributors.

What About Estonia?

According to telecommunication service provider Tele2, the data volume used by individuals on the internet has increased by 536% over the past five years, nearly five times what it was in 2018. And this growth trend is continuing.

Tele2 states that private users are using their smart devices more for everyday activities and entertainment, such as social media and video streaming. The quality of content consumed has also increased significantly, with higher-resolution videos, better video games, and more video calls. Technological advancements have played a role in boosting mobile internet speeds.

A similar trend can be observed among business clients. According to Artur Praun, the head of Elisa's business client unit, data usage among business clients has been steadily growing. "Over the past three years, data consumption by business clients in the mobile network has more than doubled. We see this growth both in the use of smartphones and in office-based consumption," says Praun.

From a business perspective, Praun also highlights the popularity of remote work, which is contributing to the growth in data usage. "A prime example of this is the migration of (mobile) calls and messages to different applications (apps). This is particularly evident in the increased volume of video calls (Teams, Zoom, etc.)," adds Praun.

Praun attributes the increase in data volumes not only to the rapid growth in video call usage but also to other factors, including the transfer of higher-quality and larger files (movies, games, music, photos, work-related documents), increased consumption of interactive content and streaming, browsing on data-intensive websites, and the growing use of various (surveillance) cameras (streaming and uploading camera footage).

From the perspective of private consumers, Tele2 points out that service packages have been moving towards unlimited data in recent years. Differentiating factors now include the volumes and options included in the package and international capabilities, as well as various value-added services. While there used to be a wide range of packages with limited data, today, most consumers prefer unlimited solutions. For instance, over 70% of consumers choose some form of unlimited mobile plan, and in the case of internet packages, the share is over 90%.

E-commerce Gathering Vast Amounts of Customer Data

Similarly, the migration of commerce to the internet has also driven the growth of data volumes. E-commerce platforms like Amazon and Aliexpress collect and store large amounts of data on customer preferences, shopping behavior, and delivery. A decade ago, it was revealed that the U.S. retail giant Walmart collects an estimated 2,500 terabytes of data every hour from customer transactions. After the COVID-19 pandemic, online shopping has remained the preferred method for many.

In Estonia, 86% of the population actively shops online, according to a recent study by the Estonian e-Commerce Association. While specific data volume statistics are not tracked, it is known that e-commerce turnover in Estonia reached 3.54 billion euros in the previous year, as reported by the Bank of Estonia. This represents an increase of over 1 billion euros or 34% compared to the previous year. E-commerce now accounts for at least 20% of total retail trade volume.

As of June last year, there were approximately 7,700 e-commerce businesses operating in Estonia. Compared to 2020, the number of Estonian e-commerce businesses has grown by nearly 2,000. In October of this year, Estonians ordered 1.26 million parcels to parcel lockers, which is approximately 21% or 160,000 parcels more than the previous year. According to the Estonian e-Commerce Association, parcel volumes have increased by a total of 16% over the first 10 months of this year. Naturally, data volumes are growing in tandem with these figures.

Machines Generating More Data Than Humans

There are even more reasons behind the growth in data volumes. One keyword here is IoT, or the Internet of Things – an increasing number of devices are connected to the internet, whether it's home automation, smart thermostats, health monitoring devices, and more. These devices constantly create and exchange information. According to Deloitte, data generated by machines and sensors is already dominating.

Tech giants like Meta, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft also play significant roles in driving growth. Organizations worldwide are increasingly using big data analysis to improve business models, understand customer behavior, and shape and implement marketing strategies (such as targeted advertising).

And we won't even delve into the topic of AI here.

These are just a few examples of how human behavior and technological development are increasing data volumes worldwide. The more people use digital services and smart devices, the more data is generated.

How to Handle this Data Deluge?

"Since every bit or byte on the internet must physically reside somewhere, and data centers are typically the chosen locations, the world needs more capable and energy-efficient data centers," explains Toomas Kell, responsible for operating the largest data center complex in the Baltics.

According to market research firm Mordor Intelligence, the global volume of data center construction was $260 billion (€236.79 billion) last year, equivalent to 14 times the Estonian state budget. "The numbers are indeed significant, and it's even more important how these data centers are built and what their ecological footprint will be. Fortunately, we can clearly see a trend in Europe towards energy efficiency and reliability," adds the Operations Manager of Greenergy Data Centers. Their facility is a prime example of this trend as its energy efficiency target is even 25% lower than the industry average.

The growth of data volumes is inevitable thanks to increasingly efficient information-producing and utilizing tech devices. 'In the data center business, we do our best to ensure that there is a safe, energy-efficient, and reliable place for every photo or video taken of Taylor Swift,' Kell jokes. 'In reality, it's a challenge, and data center capacity has become a critically important resource in our digital societies,' he concludes.