By Our Staff
The Market Research Society of India has launched the inaugural edition of its Indian Research & Insights (R&I) Industry Report. As per the report, the Indian R&I industry is expected to grow at a 12-14% CAGR to INR 31,300 crore by 2025-26, compared to INR 17,200 crore in 2020-21. Moreover, India is fast becoming the global analytics hub, with international markets accounting for 3/4th of its revenues. As per the report, the Indian R&I sector employs more than 125,000 people.
During 2020-21, Marketing Analytics services accounted for 52% of the total Indian R&I industry revenues, while traditional Market Research and Syndicated/ Publishing services stood at 32% and 16%, respectively. By 2025 26, Analytics services will account for 59%, while Custom Market Research and Syndicated/ Publishing services will account for 27% and 14%, respectively, as per the report. The FMCG and Retail sectors are the largest consumer for Research and Insights with a share of 27%, followed by Information, Communications & Telecom (16%) and Banking, Financial Services & Insurance (15%).
Commenting on the report, Sandeep Arora, President, MRSI, said, “The Indian Research & Insights industry has staged a robust recovery and is emerging as the most sought-after destination for analytics, globally. The availability of talent coupled with proven expertise in data handling, technology, infrastructure and cost competitiveness will lead to an orbital shift in the industry by 2030. We not only expect the R&I industry to grow 2X in the next five years but can safely estimate the industry size to reach $10 bn by 2030, especially with the strategic direction that most providers are adopting to move towards MR 3.0. We are excited and proud to launch the inaugural edition of the Indian Research & Insights industry report.”
MRSI partnered with Value Notes as the research partner for the report. The report curates the findings from exhaustive desk research, secondary data of 198 companies, and more than 140 interviews conducted with the industry professionals. The 150+ paged report is available on a subscription basis on the MRSI website (www.mrsi.co.in).
According to the study, the “global landscape for “research and insights” has evolved dramatically over the last decade. The explosion of data volumes, types of data and sources, and falling technology costs have driven client budgets towards tech-enabled solutions for both data collection and analysis. As a result, the scope of “research and insights” has substantially expanded and enabled many non-traditional methods as well as service providers.”
Adds the report: “India emerged as a global player in IT services a little over two decades ago, and the global impact of Indian service providers continues to resonate. The Insights Industry in India has a diversity of research providers, along a continuum ranging from “traditional MR” players servicing domestic demand, to companies focused on the global opportunity. From the early days of outsourced MR operations and secondary research, the Indian Insight industry has moved up the value chain, and now supports sophisticated tech-enabled and analytics services. As a result, Indian providers earn around 3/4ths of their revenue from international markets. India is ranked fourth in position by industry size, according to the ESOMAR report on Global Market Research 2021. The country witnessed an increase in revenues with a growing share of tech-enabled research that comprises of a thriving analytics segment.”
And what’s the future for the business?
Today, notes the report, “growth is fuelled by the quality of talent (across skills and management levels) and technological sophistication. This is a giant leap forward from the early days when offshoring to India was primarily driven by labour rate arbitrage.”
Consolidation is changing the contours of the industry, the executive summary of the report adds. “With the role of technology growing dramatically and declining share of wallet for traditional services, the definition of a “full-service” research agency is changing and lines between player types are blurring. Large full-service agencies are adding analytics capabilities inorganically and also selling DIY tools. Market research outsourcing companies are also adding analytics services, and some even getting into syndicated research. IT and BPO companies are muscling into market research as well as analytics. Report publishers are increasingly offering consulting or custom research services. Large cash-rich companies in traditional consumer MR and IT/BPOs are aggressively acquiring niche analytics firms and this consolidation is further likely to intensify to capture the share of customer wallet.”
Enthusiasm for Indian start-ups coupled with the robust global demand outlook – mean that private and public funding is likely to scale new peaks in India, notes the report,” adding: “With the role of technology growing dramatically, clients are pushing their agencies to extend their services to include digital and analytics initiatives. While this means a larger pie for providers, the need to build capabilities and acquire talent is becoming critical. This is leading to increased demand for experienced data management and analytics professionals, as well as domain experts. As analytics becomes more core to decision-making, we expect further traction in acquisitions over the next few years. India boasts a large number of start-ups in analytics and these will prove attractive targets for a variety of players.”
Esomar in partnership with the Market Research Society of India is hosting the Asia Pacific annual conference from March 29 to 31, 2020 in New Delhi. The Esomar APAC 2020 partnership with MRSI is being billed as the largest gathering of research and analytics professionals in the Asia Pacific region with over 750 delegates attending three days of thought-provoking research papers and great keynote speakers from across the globe.