Open Corporates plans to 'have a URL for every company in the world' (Wired UK)

"'We built an OpenStreetMap of the corporate world,' says Chris Taggart, cofounder of the business-data aggregator Open Corporates. In a world ruled by multinationals, Taggart wants public information on big companies to be freely accessible. 'Official company registers exist but they're national and often restrict access of their underlying data to a few large corporations,' he says. This lack of transparency 'provides a fertile ground for money laundering, corruption, fraud and organised crime.' So Taggart, an ex-journalist and open-data advocate, and his partner Rob McKinnon founded the London-based site to throw light on that world. The platform combines information such as contracts, legal violations, registered addresses, executive management and financials into a URL that can be accessed by anyone for nothing. At the moment the site covers 50 million companies in 36 countries. The aim is to 'have a URL for every company in the world,' says Taggart.