In the early days of online it was not unusual to hear the doomsayers predict that the Web would make MR obsolete, more or less, because it would make it possible for clients to mount their own surveys without having to bother with those troublesome market researchers. The main bogeyman for these worry worts was SurveyMonkey. Its name was forever being invoked as the first sign of the apocalypse. The concept was bad enough; the insulting name just pushed it over the top.
Now comes the news that SurveyMonkey has been sold, which in itself is not very interesting. However, what is very interesting is that after 15 years of being in the business the company had grown its revenues to only about $3 million a year. Hardly the juggernaut some had feared.
Certainly there are other players with essentially the same business model. Zoomerang comes immediately to mind. And I have been told that something like half of Confirmit's revenues come from corporate DIY surveys designed and executed by employees who mostly are not trained survey researchers, although I don't know that for a fact.
My take on all of this is that for better or for worse clients seem to continue to believe that we add value. I find that very reassuring, to say the least.
Comments
One response to “Big bark, little bite”
Survey Monkey might not have ruined the industry, but people like to talk about apocalypses because they are easier to understand and sexier write about than gradual change.
Survey Monkey for example has let many of us armatures get our foot in the door.