Online Research in the U.S.: What's Taking So Long?

This just in: according to a new study (by Cambiar), the value of the U.S. online research market will grow from $1.2 Billion in 2003 to $4 billion by 2008, largely by introducing a large number of smaller users. Online usage is firmly established among larger corporations with 28% of their budgets devoted to online research. For smaller companies, those using online also devote 28% of their budget to it, but overall penetration of online techniques is lower. 51% of non-users surveyed saying they definitely or probably will start using this medium in the next three years. Hence the opportunity to grow the category lies in penetrating larger numbers of smaller companies.

No doubt this is an opportunity, but there is still plenty of room to grow among those larger companies. Twenty-eight percent is a shockingly low number, particularly when one considers how many advantages online represents over traditional methods. Data gathering by phone, mail, fax or intercept all have significant disadvantages in sampling and setting, not to mention cost and timing. What are the big companies waiting for?

This is where the real opportunity lies for the industry. Our experience is that the industry has been incredibly slow to embrace the Internet, slower than consumers, in fact. Issues of response rates and quality of sample are still the most widely mentioned causes for concern when considering online research.

It's different in the rest of the world. A parallel study among 50 research companies worldwide, representing c.$1.2bn in research revenue, and found commitment to heavy investment in online over the next three years: 55% intend to increase their scripting resources, 77% to invest in panel expansion and 55% to build new panels. 78% ‘already conduct online research and have invested heavily in order to compete in this market’ and 59% are able to manage entire studies using their own resources.

The U.S. needs to catch up with consumers and with the rest of the world and start thinking of online as THE way to do research, not just the NEW way to do research.

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