Market Research in Asia updated 6 March 2006 The Asian MR market is growing by 10 to 11% a year and is ‘the hottest market worldwide for the market research industry’, according to Tony Cowling, Chairman of TNS. Below are some of the news stories covering the rise and rise of the region. Mergers & Acquisitions - New Offices - Survey and Panel Launches - Other News Mergers & Acquisitions Over the last year, several global companies have moved into Asia. Recent takeovers of Asian firms are listed below - you can also search a full list of MR acquisitions worldwide. Research International has bought the majority of shares in South China Market Research (SCMR), its joint venture partner, which has been trading as Research International China since 1997 (details). Ipsos has bought GDMR in China and the Japan Statistics and Research Co (details), as well as launching offices in Hong Kong, the Philippines and Thailand (details). Synovate has acquired Asian youth trend research agency The Filter Group (details), and the Japanese CPG research specialist CORAL Pacific(details). In February, the company also rolled out a full media research offering in the Indian sub-continent. GfK bought Hong Kong-based SoHealthAsia (details) - a move it described as the first step towards expanding its healthcare network in Asia. Nielsen Media Research acquired South Korea’s largest advertising monitoring and intelligence companies Korea Advanced Digital Data (KADD) and BasisNet (details). Millward Brown bought Korean consultancy Media Research Inc. (MRI), known for its public opinion polling (details). The company has also opened a new office in Beijing. Kantar Group acquired Oracle Market Research Holdings Ltd, one of Greater China's biggest independent MR suppliers, in November '04 (details). US online MR solutions company GMI started the year with a new sales office in Singapore. In September, it bought Insight in Shanghai, China (details). New Offices Other new office openings include: Millward Brown has introduced Optimor, its global brand consulting practice, to Asia Pacific, with new Director Yixin Zhang at the helm of a new Beijing office. US marketing and communications specialist HCD Research is opening a satellite office in China. Opinion Research Corporation has announced the closure of its market research operations in South Korea. Global Insight Inc’s Automotive Group opened offices in Tokyo and Shanghai In-Stat launched an office in China GfK Healthcare opened a new division in Thailand, as part of a new strategy to expand into local markets in Asia. TNS is incorporating its Middle East and Africa (MEA) operations into its Asia Pacific network to create a new combined Asia Pacific-Middle East and Africa (AP-MEA) region. Surveys and panels New surveys and panels in the region include the following: US Internet survey sample provider Sample Czar has partnered with Chinese loyalty program SmartClub to develop consumer and business panels for online surveys in China. Synovate has launched its Media Atlas local media survey in Malaysia. As search engine competition reaches China, US-based Keynote Systems is launching a study of users’ experience of the country’s leading search engines: Alibaba/Yahoo!, Baidu, Google China and Sohu/Sogou. Experian has introduced a Japanese version of Mosaic, classifying every Japanese household into one of 50 different socio-economic types. TNS launched a new syndicated study of the role and effectiveness of print advertising in Asia, and is rolling out of its 6thdimension access panel to China and Japan. Kadence Asia Pacific has launched KadBUS, described as ‘the first Pan-Asian business omnibus’. ACNielsen is rolling out its Homescan consumer panel service, together with its ScanTrack retail measurement technology, in Thailand. Synovate introduced a new syndicated study, called Passport, looking at travel behaviour in mainland China; and the Media Atlas survey, tracking the spending patterns and media habits of Thailand's most affluent people. Pulse has launched Planet Pulse, an online community panel of businesses and consumers. Online survey specialist FIRM has announced that its Confirmit software will power ‘Asia's largest online panel’, the new AIP mega panel of up to 1 million active respondents. Chinese Internet survey company MFC Insight has launched its Automotive Panel, a database of 30,000 mainland Chinese households who either own an automobile, or are planning to buy one. US high-tech specialist Current Analysis launched a new service - Asia Pacific Solutions - to provide telecoms research and market intelligence in Asia. Nielsen//NetRatings has launched its Internet audience measurement tool Market Intelligence in South East Asia. Indochina Research Ltd (IRL), a research agency with offices in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, has launched i-track - the region’s first ever consumer and small business confidence index. Other News MR trade body ESOMAR is working with the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) on next year's World Research Conference, taking place in Shanghai in June. The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation has launched an online English-language database of policy-oriented opinion surveys conducted by news and research agencies in Japan, Korea and China.