Researchers Around Asia Are Switching to Online: Experts Weigh in on the Effects of COVID-19

By Holden Research Team | May 11, 2020

Reading time: 5 minutes

Abstract

Holden Research conducts an ongoing survey among researchers around the APAC region to understand the effects of COVID-19 (Coronavirus). The research work explores the general societal impact, the impact on research business operations and the perspective on how the pandemic now will shape the research industry around the region now and in the future.

Research Topics:: Marketing Research-General | Online Research | Research Industry – COVID-19
Industry/Market Focus:: Asians | Research Industry
Content Type: E-Newsletter Article | Sponsored Article

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Background

In order to help our global market research colleagues understand the impact from COVID-19 on the market research industry in Asia, Holden Inc. has been conducting a continuous, on-going survey among MR professionals all over Asia, beginning in late March.

We ask (ed) some simple questions.

What has been the COVID-19 impact on the MR industry?
In terms of project execution, what kind of impact have you had from COVID-19?
What kind of adjustments are you doing to minimize the impact from COVID-19?
When will the MR industry recover from the COVID-19 crisis, and what are some future opportunities?

Survey period and coverage

The survey has been conducted over two waves:

The first survey was conducted from March 27-30.
The second survey was conducted from April 8-10.

With the support from over 100 colleagues in Greater China, Japan, Korea, India and South East Asia, we were able to obtain this industry insight.

Impact of the COVID-19 on MR Industry in Asia is getting better

Overall, around the end of March, the COVID-19 impact on the MR industry in Asia was large, with 71% of the MR professionals believing it will get even worse. Japan and Korea tend to be the most positive, with only 50% of the respondents felt it will get worse, compared to 69% in China, and 81% from South East Asia.

Two weeks later, the perception in Asia was that the situation is getting better, especially in China, Japan and Korea. Currently only 49% colleagues in Asia think that the effects of COVID-19 on our industry are getting worse.

Overall ability to control the virus is seen as key to the health of the market research industry. The virus in China, the initial outbreak area, is seen to be well under control now. Twenty-eight percent of colleagues in China indicated that the overall situation is getting better now – double the number (14%) who thought so two weeks before. Japan and Korea are also thought to be doing well, with only one-third viewing the situation as worsening.

The amount of time a market has been dealing with the virus also matters. SEA is the latest area facing the full impact of COVID-19. Seventy percent of our colleagues in SEA feel the situation is likely to worsen in the future.

Slowing but still doable: Project execution in Asia

A slowing of operations and project execution speed are a result of the COVID-19 crisis according to a majority of respondents. And there are not serious differences between two wave result.

For wave 1, only 10% of respondents claimed “no way to run projects.” Twenty-four percent claimed “NO” changes to their operations. Two-thirds of the professionals recognized a slowdown in speed.

Japan and Korea were most positive, 50% no change, 50% recognizing a slow-down. Greater China was similar to SE Asia, in that respondents from both markets felt that operations was slower than before COVID-19.

For wave 2, about 10% of projects have been cancelled or postponed. Fortunately, among projects commissioned and in field, 47% are running at speeds equal to or faster than that of two weeks prior. Forty-four percent are running slower.

In spite of a slowing in operations, nearly all respondents feel that projects are still doable in Asia. Clearly benefiting form a mature online operational environment, fieldwork timing for all projects in Japan and Korea are about the same.

ONLINE is the big winner – solutions to cope with challenges

After two waves, the overall business operations of Asian Research companies seem to be calming down (or adapting).

MR colleagues feel the project operations are running about the same as two weeks ago and they emphasized a continued switch to online methodologies. Colleagues in South East Asia are still working hard to switch from offline to online.

ONLINE is the big winner.

Switching to online methodologies is the main solution suggested by a majority of respondents.

Conservative recovery and opportunities

Almost all Asia MR professionals believe that MR business will need more than one month to recover from this crisis from the time the survey began. SE Asia and China colleagues have similar levels of confidence in a faster recovery. Japanese and Korean colleagues think that six months is necessary for a recovery.

Most market research colleagues in Asia are starting to get used to the new “COVID-19 normal” and the impact on their operations. They have been working hard to make the necessary adjustments to their operations.

In regard to the future, we can’t see a big change in expectations during the survey period. Twenty-four percent of colleagues expect that it will take over six months to recover from this crisis, (on par with 27% reporting the same in the wave 1). Colleagues in China, Japan and Korea are a bit more positive, with slightly fewer believing it will take six months or longer to return to normal.

Many people turn their hope to ONLINE research approaches for both quantitative surveys and internet video conferences for qualitative interviews.

We are happy to see some positive suggestions from the respondents in an otherwise challenging situation. The following are some of their ideas:

Voices from our colleagues around Asia

With COVID-19, our whole industry is forced to change its attitude and adopt new technologies and methodologies. There are some people who suffer from this but some business opportunities are coming to market research industry. I expect more positive things over long term but the whole industry will suffer next couple of years to catchup with the huge loss from 6-12 months of COVID 19 hit.”

— Tom Kojima (Japan)

“Many SEA countries have high enough Smart phone penetration where mobile should be the way to go. Not enough effort has been placed to convert to mobile. Many markets in SEA (Malaysia/Thailand) are ready for online recruitment…. This is nothing new… but no one really bothered testing them earlier until COVID-19."

— Kuan Hua Kow (Malaysia)

“Actually, there seems two major impacts to the business: one is some scheduled studies were delayed or cancelled. Another one is the client request a change the methods from F2F to Online or CATI etc. But now, COVID-19 has almost disappeared, thus we no longer have any issues or obstacles to conduct studies here.”

— James Yang (Korea)