Understanding corporate networks. Part 4: how we record the data

In parts 1, 2 and 3 of this series, we explored the complex world of corporate control, and how it is described in various regulations. We found that a company may control other companies in many different ways, from majority and minority share holdings to contractual relationships. At OpenCorporates we believe corporate control data is the cornerstone of a … Continue reading Understanding corporate networks. Part 4: how we record the data →

Help uncover corporate networks!

As we've written about elsewhere, when people think of a company like Starbucks, they think of it as a single entity. Yet Starbucks is at least 30 legal entities in over 20 countries. It's this group of legal entities that we call a corporate network of control, or just corporate network for short. At OpenCorporates, we think mapping … Continue reading Help uncover corporate networks! →

Major Milestone: Over 50 million companies (& a sneak peak at the future)

TLDR: OpenCorporates smashes through the 50 million companies mark, and starts work mapping corporate networks. We're pleased to announce that this weekend we smashed through the 50 million companies mark, with the addition of Thailand, West Virginia and several smaller territories (e.g. Dubai). At last count (it's changing every hour), we had 50,955,988 companies in 68 jurisdictions. That's … Continue reading Major Milestone: Over 50 million companies (& a sneak peak at the future) →

Towards a global lookup service for corporate ids

We've often stated that the goal of OpenCorporates is simple (but huge): to create an openly licensed database containing every corporate legal entity in the world, and provide open URI ids for them. We base this URI on the ID issued by the company register, as this brings multiple benefits: No Monopoly ID system Because we … Continue reading Towards a global lookup service for corporate ids →

Links in, links out: it’s all about the connections

It's been a really hectic week, and it's not over yet, but before we head off to San Francisco for Data2.0 it's worth updating the community on a couple of small but significant developments. First, two of the leading open-data local councils – Lichfield and Redbridge – have started to use OpenCorporates URIs to identify … Continue reading Links in, links out: it’s all about the connections →