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Attribute: Industry

Description​

The industry within which the business operates.

Multiple distinct classification systems have been created to describe a businesses activity (e.g. NAICS, GICS, MCC, etc.). Each classification system has advantages and drawbacks. Rather than selecting one, our approach is to provide multiple different classifications for each business. We represent this as follows

  • industry_type indicates the classification system (e.g. NAICS)
  • industry_code is the code of a particular industry within a particular classification system
  • industry_desc is the human readable description for the industry_code

For example, give an example of how NAICS would look.

Many of the traditional classification systems such as NAICS and GICS were designed for statistical purposes by government or industry organizations. While useful for many purposes, we've received feedback that for certain use cases and business types these classifications systems lack the expressiveness and detail to understand a businesses activity. (for example, NAICS will be unhelpful in distinguishing between indian restaurants and hamburger restaurants). To address these limitations, we also provide a non-hierarchical enigma_industry_description that provides a more colloquial indication of the businesses primary activity.

Data Sources​

Industry data is derived from a variety of sources:

  • company websites
  • industry association memberships
  • card transaction data

Data Fields​

Field NameDescriptionData Type
industryDesc

Human-readable description of the industry.

For industries with an industry_type that is an industry classification system, this will be the description corresponding to industry_code, provided by the developer of the industry classification system.

string
industryCode

The numeric value of the industry code. This field only contains a value for certain industry classification systems (The industry_type indicates the industry classification system). For all other classification system, this field is null.

string
industryType

The classification system used. The industry_type determines the set of industry_code and industry_desc values.

    • naics_2017_code
    • naics_2022_code
    • sic_code
    • mcc_code
    • enigma_industry_description

The enigma_industry_description is a non-hierarchical, colloquial classification that often expresses dimensions of a business that are unavailable in standard industry classification systems (e.g. the style of food offered by a restaurant). description_simplified: The industry classification system used. Valid values are naics_2017_code, naics_2022_code, sic_code, mcc_code, and enigma_industry_description.

string