Online Research Doubles Globally, But Telephone Still Most Popular

• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, August 10, 2006

The Global Market Research Report,  conducted every year by ESOMAR, available in September 2006, reveals that the Market Research industry remains healthy with longer term compound annual growth rates of 4-6%. Top line results indicate that global market research turnover tops $23 billion in 2005 with a growth rate of 4.3%. Europe maintains its leading role with 45% of the global market, and the use of online studies grows by 80%.

In fact, the Report demonstrates that online research is now playing a key role in market research around the world, representing 20% of expenditure on data collection methods. This figure nearly has nearly doubled from 2004 to 2005 (11% in 2004).

At the same time face-to-face interviews have dramatically decreased, now representing 21% of data collection compared to 31% in 2004. Telephone interviews are currently the most popular data collection method, representing 22% (relatively stable compared to 2004 with a 2 point  decrease).  The quantitative/qualitative ratio remains constant with 2004 with roughly an 80/20 split.

Véronique Jeannin, ESOMAR Director General, says "We expect the Industry's healthy growth rate to continue in the near-term… the industry faces challenges of downward pressure on prices (however) as companies pass on savings to clients from conducting online research, which are likely to be offset by demand for results from more sophisticated online research tools."

The fastest growing markets (real growth) include:

• Latvia (34%)
• China (25%)
• Thailand (23%)
• Bulgaria (22%)
• Malaysia (20%)

The results also show that in growth measurement among the largest markets:

• France grew the fastest at 3.2%  
• Germany (2.8%)
• USA (2.1%)
• Japan (2%)
• UK remains stable with 0.7% real growth