GBI-Genios

GBI-Genios Deutsche Wirtschaftsdatenbank GmbH is a German commercial host and aggregator of electronic press, company and business information in full text. Its research portals are aimed primarily at libraries and companies, and access is also available through public libraries such as the VÖBB in Berlin. The company is a subsidiary of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the Handelsblatt Media Group (formerly Verlagsgruppe Handelsblatt), which gives it a direct link to two of Germany's most important business and quality newspapers. The present company was formed by the 2005 merger of two long-established information aggregators: GBI (German Business Information, originally Gesellschaft für Betriebswirtschaftliche Information), on the market since 1978, and Genios (German Network Information Online Service), active since 1985. GBI had from the outset offered academically prepared information such as bibliographies, abstracts and topic dossiers, and with its wiso product became market leader in the German-speaking higher-education sector. Genios, by contrast, held the Handelsblatt database as an exclusive content asset that it could market in its own right. Through its internet portal, GBI-Genios lets corporate and private customers research mainly German-language sources. It partners with numerous publishers, news producers and research institutions. The range of data spans full texts from around 300 newspapers, more than 60 million company records, e-books, topic dossiers and practical work aids. For most sources, redistribution rights can also be acquired. Use of retrieved full-text documents is billed per article or as a flat fee, and GBI-Genios passes part of the remuneration on to authors and rights holders. The offering comprises editorially processed information of the kind provided by newspapers and magazines. GBI-Genios bundles all near-time types of German-language business information, supplemented by international content. Its roughly 1,000 sources can be grouped into daily and weekly press, company, people, industry and market information, trade press, literature references and practical tools, with emphasis on the company and press segments. Company information includes credit reports, company profiles, annual accounts and balance sheets, commercial-register announcements, shareholdings, trademarks and products. Sources from well-known providers such as Bundesanzeiger, Creditreform, Dun & Bradstreet and Hoppenstedt are complemented by specialist providers such as Schutzmarkendienst and bedirect. In daily and weekly press, Genios offers more than 300 sources, of which 180 are German-language and 120 English-language titles (56% from the USA, 32% from Europe and 13% from Asia and Africa). The 450 trade-press sources are organised into 25 industries, eleven business functions and four scientific areas. Proprietary offerings such as Genios Wirtschaftswissen (summaries of current business topics), the Genios Statistiken databases (market and industry information), Bliss (a business-administration literature database) and Genios Branchenwissen (reports on the 15 core sectors of the German economy) round out the portfolio. On 8 April 2024 the company suffered a ransomware attack, after which the portal was unavailable until 26 April 2024. According to Genios, all services were back in regular operation from 28 May 2024.

GBI-Genios Deutsche Wirtschaftsdatenbank GmbH is a commercial host of electronic press, company and business information in full text. Its research portals are aimed primarily at libraries and companies, and it is a subsidiary of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the Handelsblatt Media Group (formerly Verlagsgruppe Handelsblatt). Access to Genios is also possible through public libraries, for example the VÖBB in Berlin. The database host has bundled the data offerings of GBI (German Business Information, originally Gesellschaft für Betriebswirtschaftliche Information) and Genios (German Network Information Online Service) since their 2005 merger. Both companies had been active in the market as information aggregators for decades, GBI since 1978 and Genios since 1985. In addition, GBI from the outset offered academically prepared information such as bibliographies, abstracts and topic dossiers, and with the product wiso quickly became market leader in the German-speaking higher-education sector. Genios, by contrast, had the Handelsblatt database as an equally proprietary content asset that could be marketed exclusively. Through an internet portal, corporate and private customers can research mainly German sources. GBI-Genios is a partner of various publishers, news producers and research institutions. The spectrum of data offered therefore ranges from 300 newspapers in full text through more than 60 million company records to e-books, topic dossiers and practical work aids. For most sources, rights for redistribution can also be acquired. Use of the full-text documents found is settled per article or as a flat fee, and GBI-Genios passes part of the settlement sum on to the respective authors and rights holders. The offering comprises editorially processed information of the kind provided by newspapers and magazines. GBI-Genios bundles all near-time types of German-language business information, supplemented by international content. The roughly 1,000 sources in total can be roughly divided into daily and weekly press, company, people, industry and market information, trade press, literature references and practical tools. The emphasis lies in the company segment and in the press. The spectrum of company information includes credit reports, company profiles, annual accounts and balance sheets, commercial-register announcements, shareholdings, trademarks and products. Sources from well-known providers such as Bundesanzeiger, Creditreform, Dun & Bradstreet and Hoppenstedt are complemented by specialist providers such as Schutzmarkendienst and bedirect. In the area of daily and weekly press, Genios's offering has more than 300 sources, of which 180 are German-language and 120 English-language titles (56% from the USA, 32% from Europe and 13% from Asia and Africa). The 450 trade-press sources are divided into 25 industries and eleven business functions as well as four scientific areas. Proprietary offerings such as Genios Wirtschaftswissen (summaries of current business topics), the databases Genios Statistiken (market and industry information) and Bliss (a business-administration literature database) as well as Genios Branchenwissen (reports on the 15 core sectors of the German economy) complement the offering. On 8 April 2024 there was a ransomware attack, after which the portal was no longer reachable until 26 April 2024. Since 28 May 2024, according to Genios, all services have been reachable again in regular operation.

• 2005

  GBI and Genios merge to form GBI-Genios Deutsche Wirtschaftsdatenbank GmbH.

• 1985

  Genios (German Network Information Online Service) begins operations.

• 1978

  GBI (German Business Information) enters the market as an information aggregator.

• Ransomware attack takes the Genios portal offline.

• Portal becomes reachable again after the attack.

• All services return to regular operation according to Genios.

Commercial host and aggregator of German-language press, company and business information for libraries and enterprises, backed by two leading German business publishers.

• Genios research portal

  Internet portal for researching German-language press, company and business information.

• Genios Wirtschaftswissen

  Summaries of current business topics.

• Genios Statistiken

  Databases of market and industry information.

• Bliss

  Business-administration literature database.

• Genios Branchenwissen

  Reports on the 15 core sectors of the German economy.

• wiso

  GBI product that became market leader in the German-speaking higher-education sector.

1. 1GENIOS - Bonitätsauskunft - Handelsregister - Presse - Bundesanzeiger - Fachpresse - Firmenprofilegenios.de
2. 2GBI-Genioswikidata.org
3. 3GBI-Geniosde.wikipedia.org