OpenCorporates is awebsite that shares data oncorporations under thecopyleftOpen Database License. The company, OpenCorporates Ltd,[b][3] was incorporated on 18 December 2010[2] by Chris Taggart and Rob McKinnon, and the website was officially launched on 20th.[4]
Data is sourced from national business registries in 140 jurisdictions, and presented in a standardised form. Collected data comprises the name of the entity, date of incorporation, registered addresses, and the names of directors. Some data, such as the ownership structure, is contributed by users.[5][6]
In 2011, the site won third place in the Open Data Challenge.[7] Vice President of the European CommissionNeelie Kroes said the site "is the kind of resource the (Digital) Single Market needs and it is encouraging to see that it is being built."[8] The project was represented on theEuropean Union's Core Vocabularies Working Group's Core Business Task Force.[9]
In July 2015, OpenCorporates was a finalist in both the Business and Publisher categories at theOpen Data Institute Awards.[11] It was announced as the winner of the Open Data Business Award due to work with promoting data transparency in the corporate sector.[12]
The service has been used to study public procurement data,[13] online hiring market,[14] to visualize and analyze company data,[15][16][17] to analyze tax havens, and illicit activities of companies.[18]
