The world of paid survey taking is dynamic, with frequent changes driven by market research companies as platforms close, merge, or undergo significant restructuring. These shifts can be surprising to participants who rely on survey panels for extra income or rewards. However, there are practical reasons driving these changes – ones that survey takers may find surprising.
Market Saturation and Competition
One of the primary reasons for survey sites to close or merge is market saturation. The world of online survey taking has grown significantly over the past decade, resulting in an influx of new survey panels competing for a limited pool of respondents and clients. When too many survey panels target the same audience or the same type of businesses, some struggle to maintain profitability.
Mergers often occur as a strategic response to this saturation. By combining forces, survey panels can pool their resources, expand their user base, and increase their bargaining power with clients, making them more competitive in a crowded market.
Operational Costs and Profit Margins
Running a survey panel involves substantial operational costs, including technology infrastructure, respondent incentives, and marketing. If a panel cannot cover these costs or maintain a sustainable profit margin, it may be forced to close. This is particularly true for smaller panels that lack the scale to negotiate better rates with clients and for those that cannot attract enough high-quality surveys to keep participants engaged.
Mergers can help reduce these operational costs by eliminating redundancies and achieving economies of scale. When two or more panels merge, they can streamline operations, share technology, and reduce overhead, leading to improved financial stability.
Note that small survey panels can be advantageous to participants; they often offer more unique surveys, have better customer service and offer more of a community-feel.
Shifts in Client Demand
The needs and priorities of businesses and organizations commissioning surveys can change over time. If a survey panel’s client base shifts its focus or reduces its demand for consumer insights, the panel may struggle to secure enough projects to stay viable. For instance, if clients move towards more advanced data collection methods, such as artificial intelligence-driven insights or real-time analytics, traditional survey panels may find themselves losing relevance.
Survey panels that cannot adapt to these changes may choose to merge with others that have the necessary technology or client relationships to meet evolving demands. This allows the merged entity to offer a broader range of services and stay competitive.
Technological Advancements and Innovation
Technology plays a critical role in the success of online survey panels. Panels that fail to keep up with new technology may find themselves at a disadvantage. This includes everything from user-friendly interfaces and mobile compatibility to sophisticated data analysis tools and proper security measures.
Panels that lag in technology may decide to merge with more advanced platforms to remain relevant. A merger can provide access to better technology and innovative tools, helping the combined entity offer a superior experience to both respondents and clients.
A real-life example of this is when Opinion Outpost was purchased by Survey Sampling International (now known as Dynata) from Western Wats. They were a relatively simple survey panel that then changed its brand, interface, and more when it was purchased by SSI, who integrated it into their own systems.
Regulatory and Compliance Challenges
The online survey industry is subject to various regulations, especially concerning data privacy and security. Compliance with these regulations can be costly and complex, particularly for smaller panels with limited resources and those that operate in multiple countries. Failure to comply can result in penalties or damage to a panel’s reputation, leading to a loss of trust among users and clients.
Mergers can be a way for panels to better navigate regulatory challenges. By joining forces, they can share compliance expertise, and ensure that they meet industry standards more effectively.
User Base Decline and Engagement Issues
A survey panel’s success depends heavily on an active and engaged user base. If a panel experiences a decline in the number of active users or struggles to keep participants engaged, it may face difficulties in fulfilling client surveys, leading to a loss of business and drops in revenue. Reasons for declining user engagement can include a lack of interesting surveys, low reward rates, or poor user experience.
Merging with another panel can revitalize a struggling user base. The combined panel can offer a wider variety of surveys, better rewards, and a more engaging user experience, helping to attract and retain participants.
Strategic Business Decisions
Sometimes, the closure or merger of survey panels is the result of strategic business decisions made by parent companies or investors. For instance, a parent company may decide to focus on more profitable ventures or diversify into other areas, leading to the closure or sale of a survey panel. Alternatively, investors might push for a merger to create a larger, more dominant player in the market, enhancing the panel’s long-term prospects.
In these cases, the decision to close or merge is often driven by broader business goals rather than the specific performance of the survey panel itself.
Dynata currently appears to be doing this very thing, as their recent closures of OneOpinion and iPoll surprised a lot of survey takers. These panels had both been around for well over a decade, but Dynata chose to close them and absorb these users into their existing panels – Valued Opinions and E-Rewards.
Conclusion
When survey panels close or merge, these decisions are often the result of a combination of market forces, operational challenges, and strategic decisions. While these changes can be unsettling for participants, the end goal is to create more competitive platforms that can better serve both users and clients.
Understanding the reasons behind these shifts can help survey takers navigate the evolving landscape of paid surveys and make informed decisions about which survey sites to join or continue using.
