Asia Pacific region - aprc-research

Dominic Carter Bob Chua James Fergusson
The mobile only revolution
Percentage of mobile internet browsers who ‘never or infrequently use the
desktop internet’ *
Country
India, China, Indonesia, Thailand 43%
South Africa, Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya 56%
US, UK 22%
Russia 19%
US 22%
UK 25%
China 30%
Thailand 32%
Indonesia 44%
Nigeria 50%
Kenya 54%
Ghana 55%
South Africa 57%
India 59%
Egypt 70%
% of mobile only
Data gathered from July to November 2010 - N= 15,204 (Source: On Device Research)
* ‘Infrequent’ mobile internet browsers use it once a month or less
Fergusson and Williams say most rural and remote regions
in the developing world still lack basic internet infrastructure
and access. Increasingly mobile networks are penetrating deep
into these formerly inaccessible regions including in difficult and
complex countries. With dropping data rates, mobile internet has
begun to rapidly penetrate all geographies. In Rural China, one in
four internet users are introduced to the web for the first time via
their mobile phone.
At APAC, Fergusson and Williams will argue that these factors
alone provide compelling evidence that the Asia market research
industries must focus a greater investment emphasis on fast tracking
the use of mobile phones to be a viable and commonly accepted
data collection medium.
‘In a global context this is far more important to our industry than
the online revolution was in the early 2000s,’ they say.
According to ESOMAR’s latest Global Market Research Report,
Japan is the biggest research market by turnover in the Asia Pacific
region – yet to be trumped by China, where the industry has only
operated for about 23 years – and the Japanese research industry
is also being radically transformed by technology.
Dominic Carter, who founded Carter Associates KK in 2004 a few
years after emigrating from Australia to Japan to work for Millward
Brown, says his business was not that badly affected by the GFC because
he had ongoing contracts focused on the domestic market.
But he says that despite his company’s apparent immunity from
the GFC, many market research companies are doing it tough. Carter
says there has been considerable consolidation among foreign
suppliers in Japan and now most of the major foreign players are
owned by the WPP Group and are operating (or soon will be) under
one brand, Japan Kantar Research.
‘It has proven difficult for the multinational research agencies to
develop their branded product solutions in the Japanese market on
a scale that justifies their independent existence.
‘The rest of the industry in Japan is under pretty severe pressure,
especially when it competes with online panels. A lot of the work in
the past few years has gone to the relatively new companies Yahoo
Value Insights and Macromill, which have now merged,’ he explains.
‘The industry, which has never been much of a value-added insightsdriven
industry, has really been changed by the move towards online
panels. Technology is driving everything towards being quicker, faster
and cheaper. Clients are cutting budgets to the bone.’
Online shopping company Rakuten has even moved into the
consumer research space. It operates a research panel and has
launched a do-it-yourself survey solution.
Carter says while there are some Western-style research users
in Japan who demand quality insight generation from their agencies,
they are the exception rather than the rule. Japanese clients
are less likely to make decisions based on research than their
Western counterparts.
‘Domestic companies tend not to do as much MR as we know it,’
he explains. ‘As a percentage of GDP, spend on MR is much lower
than it is in other markets. Japanese clients have never really demanded
much by way of insights from their suppliers, so this very
utilitarian, quick, cheap solution [offered by online panels] really
serves the market well.’
Carter believes the days of research ‘as we know it’ are numbered
(and not just in Japan) and that researchers, in the quantitative area
at least, need to get much more au fait with technology and better understand
what advances in mobile internet mean for market research.
This is one of the reasons he has recently launched a new Japanese
joint venture with Australian market research technology company
Potentiate (formed recently by the consolidation of software firm Infotools
Australia, panel management and survey deployment specialist
Plenari and online sample firm Sampleworx under one brand).
‘The way we do research is going to change. Japanese don’t have
any preconceived notions that you shouldn’t exploit technology. There
are also newer players who don’t necessarily make the distinction
between other branches of marketing and research. Potentiate is
very, very appropriate to the times when everything becomes much
more technology driven. We have developed and are developing
products that are very empowering for the client, allowing them to
achieve a lot more in the areas of research data collection, analysis
and communication, a lot more quickly.’
‘CATI versus online panels shouldn’t even be a conversation,’ argues
Fergusson. ‘We’re caught up in a debate that’s 10 years old.’
Reassuringly, he believes there are real opportunities for Australian
researchers to lead the mobile research revolution. These
will no doubt be explored further at APAC 2011.
Kerry Sunderland, managing editor, Research News
Research News March 2011 15