Tokyo, September 10, 2014 –Rakuten Research and iRidge today announced the beginning of the joint provision of the iBeacon-compatible O2O (online to offline) survey service “popinfo Research.” They will provide this service to companies involved in exhibition venues, commercial facilities, stores, and tourist areas.
“popinfo Research” is a survey service that uses push notification functions*1 for smartphones. This service sends questionnaire requests to smartphone users who visit the vicinity of a given facility, such as an exhibition venue or commercial facility, using the positional information-linked information transmitting technology*2 of popinfo, iRidge’s O2O solution. Rakuten Research designs questionnaire content and provides the collected data as survey and analysis reports, enabling client businesses to utilize the information for marketing policies.
Questionnaire respondents to this service are smartphone users who have installed an app that implements popinfo. When the user responds to the questionnaire, coupons, gift certificates, and other items that can be used at the corresponding facilities are provided.
By combining iRidge’s popinfo O2O solution with the survey planning and data analysis expertise that Rakuten Research has cultivated through its Internet survey activities, the two companies will provide not only O2O-type positional information-linked surveys, but also realize linkage to customer guidance services that attract customers to the facilities and support corporate marketing policies.
*1: A system that sends notifications to iPhones, Android terminals and other smartphones, even when a user’s smartphone application is not open.
*2: In addition to iBeacon, GPS and Wi-Fi are used for determining location, and both outdoor and indoor positional information-linked surveys are possible.
Expected Usage Scenarios
・Questionnaires for users visiting commercial facilities (shopping centers, department stores, etc.)
・Questionnaires for users visiting specific stores (restaurants, retail stores, service stores, etc.)
・Questionnaires for event and exhibition visitors (overall event assessments, assessments of individual exhibition booths, etc.)
・Questionnaires for visitors to tourist areas and theme parks (assessments of tourist sights and attractions, etc.)
Advantages for Businesses Using the Service
Since surveys can be carried out with respondents at the time they visit a location, businesses can obtain timely and accurate survey results, improve products and services, formulate future plans and otherwise speed up and refine the PDCA cycle for marketing policies.In addition, these surveys can be implemented at a lower cost than conventional surveys conducted by staff.
Advantages for People Using the Service (Questionnaire Respondents)
Since questionnaire response requests are delivered to smartphone terminals owned by users themselves at the time they come near a designated location, and because they can register their responses at a time of their choosing, it is possible to participate in these surveys in a more simple and convenient way than conventional surveys carried out by survey staff.
About popinfo, an O2O Solution for Smartphones
URL: http://popinfo.iridge.jp/
popinfo is an information transmission solution intended for Android, iPhone, and other smartphones that aim at customer attraction and sales promotion. Since the transmitted information is pop-up displayed in the standby display, it has the distinct feature of being easier to notice than e-mail messages. It is possible to send transmissions linked to user location information obtained through GPS and Wi-Fi, and therefore, measures such as notifications of sale information from a store to a certain fixed range of users can be realized. In 2013, this solution received the First Prize at the “O2O Grand Prize Awards.”
About iRidge
URL: http://iridge.jp/
iRidge, Inc. is an Internet service operating company. It is focused on planning and developing services that use the Internet to make the world more enjoyable and convenient.
In particular, iRidge boasts top-of-the-industry accomplishments in the areas of O2O and positional information-linked services for smartphones.
About Rakuten Research
URL: https://research.rakuten.co.jp/
Rakuten Research is an integrated marketing survey company that maintains its own survey panels comprised of users of Rakuten’s numerous products and services, and focuses on Internet surveys to develop diverse services that include off-line surveys, overseas surveys, and MROC surveys.