Daniel Slotta
Research expert covering Greater China
Market research industry - statistics & facts
In an increasingly complex global market place, the market research industry offers a dynamic and ever-changing landscape that continues to provide innovative solutions and valuable insights for businesses. This has included insights into consumer behavior such as perceptions on targeted advertisements and personalized content. The global revenue of the market research industry was almost 54 billion U.S. dollars in 2023 and has grown by more than 20 billion U.S. dollars since 2008. In 2023, North America generated the largest share of market research revenue, representing over half of the total, and was then followed by Europe with around one quarter of the global market share.
What has become clear from this analysis of methods is that market research is heading in the direction of being almost exclusively online. The percentage of teams of marketers and creatives collaborating remotely versus face-to-face has proven remote and in real time to be the most popular way of communicating. With the artificial intelligence (AI) market size predicted to grow exponentially over the next few years, market research by physical human interaction may soon become a thing of the past.
Global powerhouses in the market research industry
As the market research industry has proven itself to be a highly valuable resource in the world of business and advertising, the leading market research companies are, perhaps unsurprisingly, multi-billion dollar assets. The leading market research companies have included Kantar (UK), Gartner (U.S.), IQVIA (U.S.), Ipsos (France), and Salesforce (U.S.). Gartner was the largest market research company worldwide in terms of revenue in 2023. These global powerhouses have shown no signs of slowing down as revenues have continued to be well into their billions in 2024.Which sector spends the most on market research?
As with any line of research, the market research industry uses a variety of methods and practices to gather insights in order to improve business outcomes. The most used of these research methods was online and/or mobile quantitative research in 2023, as this was the service that was contributing the most to the global revenue of market research companies. In terms of financial output, media and broadcasting had the highest spending on market research services when broken down by client's sector.What has become clear from this analysis of methods is that market research is heading in the direction of being almost exclusively online. The percentage of teams of marketers and creatives collaborating remotely versus face-to-face has proven remote and in real time to be the most popular way of communicating. With the artificial intelligence (AI) market size predicted to grow exponentially over the next few years, market research by physical human interaction may soon become a thing of the past.
