Vinepair: Big Beer, Big Data, and the Big Implications of AB InBev’s RateBerr Acquisition

In February 2019, ZX Ventures, the venture capital arm of Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev), the world’s largest brewing company, completed its purchase of RateBeer, a consumer beer review platform.

Via ZX Ventures, AB InBev invests in dozens of beer and beer-adjacent businesses. This includes online retailers, delivery services, and publishers, along with other consumer products. As with AB InBev’s oft-bemoaned acquisitions of craft breweries like Goose Island and Wicked Weed, many brewers and RateBeer users lamented the sale, citing the inherent bias of a corporation owning user-driven content.

Favoritism is the least of our worries, though. By acquiring RateBeer, AB InBev now owns a treasure trove of data, including the preferences and locations of active and passionate beer drinkers. One corporation now has the power to watch, analyze, predict, and, eventually, create the beers we like by using data many of us volunteered willingly under different circumstances.