About the 2018 GRBN Global Top 25 Report

For the past four years the Global Top 25 Report and the U.S. Top 50 Report have highlighted the expansion and transformation of the market research industry globally and nationally. This year marks a change in the Global Top 25 Report itself, with a new partnership between the report author, Diane Bowers, and the Global Research Business Network, the report publisher. The new publication will be named the “GRBN Global Top 25 Report.”

The Global Research Business Network provides a direct connection with over 40 regional federations and national research associations, and their member research businesses and professionals. In addition, GRBN provides a worldwide platform for communication about the top 25 companies, about business trends, and about research industry transformation. GRBN and Diane Bowers will seek comments from and engagement with our broader audience of research industry associations, businesses, professionals, and clients.

We look forward to this new partnership and the opportunity to improve the GRBN Global Top 25 Report and the analysis and measurement of our dynamic research and data analytics industry.

Copyright
© 2018 GRBN

The copyright on the material presented in this report is owned by Global Research Business Network, GRBN. Parts or the whole of the material in this report may only be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted if GRBN is clearly acknowledged as the copyright owner and the source is clearly acknowledged as ‘2018 GRBN Global Top 25 Companies Report’.

Disclaimer

The information provided within this report is for general informational purposes only. There are no representations or warranties, expressed or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, or suitability with respect to the information contained in this report for any purpose. Any use of this information is at your own risk. Neither GRBN nor Diane Bowers assume and accept any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by applying the information shared in this report.

Main Findings

Total Revenue and Growth Rate
The total 2017 revenue for the 25 companies in the GRBN Global Top 25 Report is $26,248.9 million versus $24,775.8 million in 2016, a growth rate of 5.9% (3.8% when adjusted for inflation).

The 2017 growth rate is 1.3% higher than the 4.6% growth rate recorded by last year’s top 25 companies. However, it is important to note that one company in this year’s global top 25 achieved a 33% growth rate in 2017, which significantly inflates the growth rate for all of the 25 companies. If you correct for this outlier, then the growth rate in 2017 was 3.7% or .9% lower than 2016’s growth rate of 4.6%.

Year-over-Year Increases & Decreases in Revenue (see Exhibit 1)
In this year’s Global Top 25 Report 12 out of the 25 companies had a flat growth rate or a decrease in their revenue. The average growth rate for these 12 companies was -3.1%. There were four fewer companies in 2017 versus 2016 that had revenue increases that exceeded the rate of inflation. Six companies had double-digit revenue increases, which combined to an average of 15.8% increase in revenue. Seven companies had single-digit revenue increases exceeding the inflation rate, averaging 5.5% increase in revenue in 2017.

Exhibit 1: 2017 Global Top 25 Report Growth Rate vs. 2016 Global Top 25 Report Growth Rate

Countries and Currencies (see Exhibit 2)
There are five countries and four currencies represented in this year’s Global Top 25 Report.

The British Pound is the home country currency for eight of the Top 25 companies and 46.4% of the total 2017 global revenue. The United Kingdom contingent includes three Top 10 companies, beginning with #1 and # 2 on the list, Nielsen and Kantar, and #9 dunnhumby. The other British companies are #11 Wood MacKenzie, #16 Cello Health, #19 Euromonitor International, #21 Mintel, and #24 YouGov.

The U.S. Dollar is the currency for the twelve U.S. companies, representing 36.2% of the total 2017 Global Revenue. Four U.S. companies are included in the Top 10–#3 IQVIA, #4 Gartner Research, #7 IRI (Information Resources), and #8 Westat. The other U.S. companies are: #12 comScore, #13 The NPD Group, #15 ICF, #17 Forrester Research Services, #18 DRG (Decision Resources Group), #22 MaritzCX, #23 LRW (Lieberman Research Worldwide), and #25 Informa Financial Intelligence.

The Euro represents 14.5% of the total 2017 global revenue, with 8.2% of that revenue coming from France, including #5 on the Top 10, Ipsos, and #20 BVA. Germany’s 6.3% of the global revenue is represented by one company, GfK, #6 on the Top 10 list.

The Japanese Yen represents 2.9% of the 2017 global revenue, and includes two companies, beginning with #10 on the Top 10 list, INTAGE Holdings, along with #14 Macromill Group.

Exhibit 2: Countries and Currencies Represented on the Global Top 25 List

New Additions to this Year’s Global Top 25

There are five additions to this year’s list of the Global Top 25 companies.

Absent from this Year’s List

This year’s Global Top 25 does not include five companies that were included among last year’s Global Top 25. These companies are Mediametrie in France; Video Research in Japan; and Abt Associates, NRC Health, and ORC International in the U.S.

Moving Up and Down

With the addition of Gartner Research at #4 on the Global Top 25 list, all but the three top companies moved at least one position down on the list.

How Global? (see Exhibit 3)

Many of the global top 25 companies focus their business within their home country. This is true even for some of the largest companies on the list. Looking at the revenue derived from the Home Country and revenue from Outside the Home Country, this year’s global top 25 companies have a slightly stronger “Home” focus than last year’s global top 25 companies. The percent of global revenue from Outside the Home Country is 67% percent—about 3 percentage points lower than last year’s global top 25 report.

Sixteen companies in the Global Top 25 (including four companies in the Top 10) derive more than 60% of their annual revenue from their home country.  Even so, the revenue generated by the global top 25 companies outside their home countries is more than twice the revenue they generate in their home countries.

Exhibit 3: How global are the top 25 companies?

The Top 10 companies account for 86.6% ($22,742.7 million) of the total 2017 global revenue of $26,248.9 million for the Global Top 25. Moreover, these companies represent $16,552.4 million (94%) of the 2017 revenue from Outside the Home Country and $6,190.3 million (71.7%) of the total 2017 Home Country revenue for the Global Top 25. These ten companies together have 182,777 employees or 91.5% of the total number of employees for the Global Top 25 companies.

Three of the Top 10 companies are headquartered in the United Kingdom—Nielsen, Kantar, and dunnhumby. Four are headquartered in the United States—IQVIA, Gartner Research, IRI, and Westat. Ipsos is headquartered in France, GfK is headquartered in Germany, and INTAGE Holdings is headquartered in Japan.

With Gartner Research filling the #4 position on the Top 10 list, only Nielsen, Kantar, and IQVIA maintained their ranking at #1, #2, and #3 on the Top 10 list. There were adjustments in the rank order of all the other Top 10 companies.

At number one, Nielsen’s 2017 global revenue of $6,572.0 million represents 25% of the total global revenue of the Top 25. Nielsen’s 2017 revenue from Outside the Home Country of $6,392.4 million represents 36.3% of the total Outside Home Country revenue for the Global Top 25 companies.

Reading through the Profiles of the Global Top 25 companies confirms that their services are expanding and changing.  Most companies are vested in online research, panel research, social media measurement, data analytics, and customer experience. The Global Top 25 companies are increasing their focus on and investment in social media, predictive analytics, data visualization, and enterprise feedback management, among other emerging sub disciplines that are being studied by Michael Brereton and the Research Transformed Collaborative at Michigan State University, as well as GRBN and other research associations around the world.

These company profiles of the Global Top 25 show that syndicated and tracking studies, along with the measurement of audiences, consumer purchases and behavior, as well as subscriptions and contracts for research and data analytics products and services on industries, trends, media, marketing, etc. are moving research expenditure into the client’s “essential, must have” budget, rather than the discretionary category. Please take time to read through the company profiles to see how these leading edge companies are expanding and transforming their portfolios.

Methodology

With the help of the Global Research Business Network (GRBN), which includes the national research associations in over 40 countries around the world, invitations are sent out to research and data analytics firms with estimated revenue more than $75 million. We ask for revenue information for the prior calendar year and for the year preceding that, in order to assess the growth rate. Other company data are also requested, including a description of the company’s management, services, specializations, etc. The rate of growth from year to year has been adjusted to account for revenue gains or losses from acquisitions or divestitures. Verification of revenue is required of each private firm for ranking by a third party—generally it’s the outside accounting firm. For further information, contact Diane Bowers at dianebowersadvisorysvcs@gmail.com.

Diane Bowers is a consultant to research and data analytics businesses and industry associations, including GRBN and the Insights Association. Formerly, she was President of CASRO, board chair of the Global Research Business Network, and a board member of the Americas Research Industry Alliance. Bowers currently serves on the board of directors of The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at Cornell University. She is also a past president of the Market Research Council and the Research Industry Coalition, and a long-time member of AAPOR, AMA, and ESOMAR.

About GRBN

GRBN, the Global Research Business Network, connects 45 research associations and over 3500 research businesses on six continents. More than US$25 billion in annual research revenues (turnover) are generated by these businesses. GRBN’s mission is to promote and advance the business of research by developing and supporting strong autonomous national research associations and undertaking global industry initiatives.

Twitter: @grbn_org