WIRED Greece on 'Noikokyris' and the Nightmare of Web Scraping

On June 26, 2026, WIRED Greece published a highly interesting and thorough article titled "How Much Does PosoKanei Cost? The €370,000 and the Nightmare of Web Scraping", written by Vassilis Tatsiopoulos. In this article, ATOMIC and our platform "Noikokyris" (noikokyris.gr) are mentioned as one of the characteristic cases of private initiative that attempted to solve the problem of supermarket price comparison — and faced the "nightmare" of web scraping.

What Was "Noikokyris"

Noikokyris was an independent platform for comparing supermarket product prices, developed as part of ATOMIC's social responsibility, with no commercial revenue model. Our goal was to help consumers find the best prices by comparing products from all major chains.

Unlike the state-run PosoKanei, which receives data directly from the chains through institutional connections, we — like other private platforms — were forced to resort to web scraping: the automated scanning and extraction of data from the chains' e-shops.

The Nightmare of Scraping

As Dimitris Mageiras, CTO of ATOMIC, explained in his interview with WIRED Greece:

"Technically, this is extremely fragile. The chains frequently update their page code or add protection mechanisms (anti-bot), causing the extraction systems to break constantly and require immediate repair. Additionally, a huge challenge remains the 'normalization' of data, i.e., automatically identifying that a product with a different name in two chains is the exact same item."

Scraping is not just a technical difficulty — it also carries significant financial cost. It requires expensive infrastructure (proxies, servers), continuous maintenance, and endless man-hours. For "Noikokyris," this financial burden was ultimately the main reason its operation was discontinued.

Open Data: The Goal

In the article, Dimitris Mageiras emphasizes that the real solution lies in Open Data and public APIs:

"The ideal scenario — and where innovation would truly take off — would be for the state to provide this data through open APIs (Open Data). If this access existed, private platforms could avoid the nightmare of scraping and build on this data, providing value-added services."

With open APIs, tools for basket comparison, price alert features, research dashboards, AI assistants for consumers, and even predictive purchasing models could be developed — services that are practically impossible for private entities to offer today without access to primary data.

The Major Advantage of a State Platform

We recognize that a state platform like PosoKanei has a significant advantage: the ability — and often the institutional enforcement — to directly connect via API with the ERP systems of major chains. This ensures data validity and immediacy. However, the state's refusal to make this data available as open APIs (as stated by the Governor of the Independent Market Oversight Authority) closes the door to innovation and leaves private developers struggling with the thorns of scraping.

Our Experience, Our Voice

We are proud that ATOMIC and "Noikokyris" were included in such an important feature by WIRED Greece. The fact that a leading international technology media outlet recognizes our effort and hosts our views on the future of open data in Greece gives us strength to continue supporting the vision of Open Data and transparency.

We thank Vassilis Tatsiopoulos and WIRED Greece for the coverage and the excellent journalistic work.

Read the full article: How Much Does "PosoKanei" Cost? The €370,000 and the "Nightmare" of Web Scraping — WIRED Greece