TL;DR
Web scraping turns the entire internet into your research database. Track competitor product launches, monitor industry news, analyze customer reviews, and gather market size data. What used to take a research team months now takes hours.
What Can You Research with Scraping?
| Research Type | Data Sources | Insights |
|---|---|---|
| Competitor Analysis | Websites, press releases, job postings | Strategy, hiring focus, product roadmap |
| Industry Trends | News sites, blogs, social media | Emerging technologies, market shifts |
| Customer Research | Reviews, forums, Q&A sites | Pain points, feature requests, objections |
| Pricing Intelligence | E-commerce sites, pricing pages | Competitive positioning, discount patterns |
| Market Sizing | Directories, databases, public filings | TAM, company counts, market share |
Competitor Intelligence Signals
Track these signals to understand competitor strategy:
Job Postings
Companies hiring AI engineers are building AI products. Hiring sales reps in new regions means expansion. Job postings reveal strategy 6-12 months ahead.
Press Releases & News
Track product announcements, partnerships, funding rounds, and executive changes. Google News scraping gives you real-time competitive intelligence.
Product Catalog Changes
Monitor competitor websites for new products, discontinued items, and feature updates. Weekly scrapes show you what's changing.
Review Analysis
Competitor reviews reveal their weaknesses. "I wish it had..." and "The worst part is..." are product development gold mines.
Market Sizing with Scraped Data
Calculate TAM (Total Addressable Market) by scraping industry directories:
- Identify company databases - LinkedIn, Crunchbase, industry directories
- Scrape company listings - Extract company names, sizes, and industries
- Filter by your ICP - Apply criteria like size, location, tech stack
- Calculate market size - Count × average contract value = TAM
Building a Research Pipeline
Weekly Research Schedule:
Monday: Scrape competitor product pages
Tuesday: Collect industry news and press releases
Wednesday: Gather customer reviews and social mentions
Thursday: Extract job postings from top 10 competitors
Friday: Compile insights into research report
Recommended Research Actors
Website Content Crawler - Scrape entire competitor websites
Google News Scraper - Track industry news and competitor mentions
LinkedIn Company Scraper - Extract company profiles and employee counts
Crunchbase Scraper - Get funding, valuation, and company data
Cost Comparison
| Research Method | Cost | Time to Insight |
|---|---|---|
| Research analyst | $5,000-10,000/project | 4-8 weeks |
| Market research firm | $20,000-100,000 | 8-16 weeks |
| Automated scraping | $100-500/month | Hours to days |
Start Your Research
Turn the web into your competitive intelligence database. Free tier available.
Start Free Trial →FAQ
How do I organize scraped research data?
Use a data warehouse like BigQuery or Snowflake. Create separate tables for competitors, news, reviews, and job postings. Build dashboards in Looker or Tableau.
Can I scrape behind paywalls?
Avoid scraping content that requires payment or login. Stick to publicly visible information. For paywalled data, use official subscriptions.
How fresh does research data need to be?
News and social: daily. Competitor websites: weekly. Market sizing data: monthly or quarterly.