[brimpa]

<30 seconds is considered real-time? At the company I used to work for, all clients around the world had to get the same data in <1 second.

Does there exist a definition of "real-time" that can be used across industries?

[gbelote]

Not really, it depends on the context and is somewhat of a relative word (like "fast"). I personally interpret "real time" as "practically instant".

In the case of RT analytics, there's probably very small practical difference between 1s and 30s: it's typically dwarfed by the reaction time of the observer (what advantage is there in reacting 29s seconds sooner?).

In the case of something like a stock trading tool, 29s could make a huge difference and it's not practically the same as knowing instantly.