The global tsunami reaches Indian shores

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

• Discount UK Shopping

Related Articles

Gold the most preferred investment

: Online (or web) research is the fastest growing and most impactful factor influencing the way primary market research is conducted, globally. The United States saw the largest number of early adopters (particularly during the last 7-8 years), followed by Europe. In the last 3 years the methodology has started gaining wider acceptance across Asia Pacific as well.

India, although relatively untouched by online research, is now gradually opening up to it. With increasing internet penetration and the changing profile of net-connected consumers acting as strong catalysts, firms and agencies have begun to explore the benefits of online research and educate themselves regarding various limitations of the methodology in the Indian context. We expect that in relatively short time, India will also join this global bandwagon and witness a large adoption rate for online research as users and providers are able to unlock the potential of online research in India.

Global trends in data collection

The initial years of this decade saw a burgeoning growth of online research, at the cost of phone interviews as well as paper-based surveys. In the last three years, online research has continued to grow phenomenally, however it appears to be at the expense of paper-based surveys, not phone interviews, which is holding up well. Globally in 2008, online accounted for 48% of quantitative research work done— up from 40% in 2006.

Across the world, online studies are the biggest source of revenue for media research companies and this has been increasing over the years. Given the USA’s already high adoption rates, it has been observed that the number of firms using online surveys has increased at a higher rate in Europe and the Asia Pacific region. Globally, there has been a large reduction in the number of companies conducting paper research.

Reliable data for adoption of online research in India is still not available; however it is estimated at less than 5% of quantitative data collection—the Indian research industry has one of the lowest adoption rates in the world; hence the largest opportunity as well.

The total base of internet users in India stands at about 56 million currently, with 90% coming from urban areas and 10% from rural areas. Around 37% users live in the top eight metros. The overall internet population in urban India is estimated to be growing by about 35% Y-o-Y, with a penetration of 18%; rural penetration is about 1%.