MR in Asia Pacific

The marketing and opinion research industry in Asia Pacific is worth just over US$2 billion and represents 13% of the worldwide market for market research according to ESOMAR's latest global market research study.

This compares to North America which represents 41% of the worldwide market and Europe, representing 40% of the global market. Due to the economic slowdown and to a faltering market in Japan, the Asia Pacific market shrank by 4.8% from 2000 to 2001 when measured in US dollars.

The largest market for market research in Asia Pacific is Japan at US$1070 million, followed by Australia (US$ 249 million) and China (US$ 193 million).

Singapore is the ninth largest market in the region with market research turnover estimated at US$ 35 million. Singapore has the fourteenth largest population in the region and this means that the average per capita spend on market research is high for the region. This also reflects the fact that per capita GNP in Singapore (US$ 25.000) is second highest in the region, coming only after Japan at US$38.000.

Expectations for the next five years (2002-2006) are for moderate growth at around 4-5% growth per annum for the majority of countries. China, India and Vietnam will probably be above this level with Japan again not expecting significant growth (1% per annum). It is estimated that the total market will grow from around US$2 billion in 2001 to US$ 3 billion in2006.

Asia Pacific is widely diverse with the two of the largest populations worldwide (China and India) at one end and some very small countries at the other end (Singapore and New Zealand).

Asia Pacific also has some countries with the highest GDP per capita such as Japan, Singapore and Australia and some of the lowest (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar). Asia differs from most other key regions because of this huge variation in both population and per capita income.

Asia holds around 60% of the world's population and forecasts are that this percentage will remain constant though the total numbers will still grow rapidly.

However at present Asia only makes up 30% of world GDP but even by 2015 Asia is expected to increase its share of a greatly expanded GDP to around 40% obviously indicating a huge rise in per capita income and GDP.

Whilst the standards and quality of market research in some countries such as Australia and Japan match the best standards worldwide, this might not be true for all of Asia Pacific, especially in those countries where market research has developed in the recent past. However standards are not that far behind as 80% of the industry in most countries is in the hands of global market research chains, ensuring that standards are monitored and continuously improved in Asia. ISO9002 is gradually taking hold and most key companies will be certified within 2002/2003.

All articles 2006-22 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.