Asian-Based Panel Firm Launched

Japanese Internet service company EC Navi has announced the opening of a new subsidiary, Research Panel Asia Inc. (RPA), offering online survey panels in Asia. The first RPA panel, 91wenwen.com, launches in China today.

EC Navi has one of Japan's biggest online user databases, built on the back of a network of reward services, and already operates a similar company for research in Japan, Research Panel Inc., established in 2005.

The new company's assets include ten years of experience in quality control, panel operation and service usability improvement from EC Navi's online panel supply and media business.

RPA aims to have a high-quality Chinese panel of 300,000 users by the end of 2010, according to its President Shogo Nakazato, who comments: 'There are many copies of famous US/European online services in those Asian countries, but we see a great potential of original services based on their own local life styles and cultures emerging. From business point of view, our 1st challenge is to be a top regional online panel supplier and 91wenwen.com is its first product.'

At 91wenwen.com , users get between 50 and 5000 online points reward for answering a survey - these can be exchanged for Chinese currency via www.alipay.com at the rate of 1000 points to 10 RMB.

Web sites: www.ecnavi.jp , www.researchpanelasia.com and www.91wenwen.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

• dataSpring
• All news