The growth of the mobile platform has created new frontiers for marketers and Big Data. With the millions of mobile devices now in service and the projected growth of the market, opportunities for market research and availability of data have shifted. Combine that with the number of times we look at their phones on a daily basis and this is where mobile survey tool Pollfish seeks to capitalize.
Pollfish can reach over 170 million users at any time. This number of potential participants provides a diverse set of demographics and quick turnaround time for results. I provided sample questions for a product demo, for which founder John Papadkis created a survey and published while we spoke. Within 20 minutes, I had 200 relevant responses to the four questions – responses I could use as market research for my product.
Papadkis came up with the idea after he and his team realized the potential of the mobile platform and saw a need not being met by current survey products. When their first startup didn’t work out, he and part of his team moved on to Pollfish. The benefit of the mobile-only platform over other services like Survey Monkey is people are more likely to engage the mobile survey during down time. Survey Monkey and other laptop and desktop platforms contact people when they are more likely working. According to Papadkis, no one wants to take time away from work for a survey. No one wants an email directing them away from work or other tasks to a website for a long questionnaire. The mobile survey has an opt-in feature which doesn’t direct the user away from their current viewing. Instead, it overlays the window with a request the user can close if desired.
The opportunities for revenue and growth in Big Data for Pollfish are tremendous. Clients can use Pollfish to create surveys for market segment data from previous survey results if the questions are relevant to the desired audience. Additionally, by using statistical methods, Pollfish can tell clients into what percentile the survey results match the distribution of previous responses for a market segment. This helps clients know of their survey results are a true representation of the market sentiment.
