Today the company's products end up in goods ranging from cars to electrical goods, cosmetics, sports equipment and medical devices.

ECONOMIST: BASF and the chemical industry

The new agreement between America and Europe should boost transatlantic trade in electrical goods, but the deal also gives American and European products an edge in each other's markets over goods from other countries.

ECONOMIST: Are regional trade agreements a good idea?

Buyers of electrical goods, for instance, can use the technology to rank products by performance on criteria of their choice weighing ease of use, say, against quality of service.

ECONOMIST: A survey of e-commerce