Responses to Esomar 28 Questions

Intro to TapResearch

TapResearch connects mobile, tablet and desktop users interested in completing surveys with market research surveys that need their responses. Through our Audience Network, comprised of thousands of integrated mobile apps, hundreds of millions of people around the world can participate in our surveys. Our technology platform enables researchers to execute survey research projects quickly and confidently.

Intro to ESOMAR

ESOMAR (European Society for Opinion and Market Research) is the essential organization for encouraging, advancing and elevating market research worldwide. Since 1948, ESOMAR’s aim has been to promote the value of market and opinion research in effective decision-making. The ICC/ESOMAR Code on Market and Social Research, which was developed jointly with the International Chamber of Commerce, sets out global guidelines for self-regulation for researchers and has been undersigned by all ESOMAR members and adopted or endorsed by more than 60 national market research associations worldwide.

Company Profile

1) What experience does your company have in providing online samples for market research?

TapResearch has significant experience delivering online sample for market researchers. Since 2013, we have delivered many tens of millions of completed surveys for hundreds of research clients. Our Audience Network spans thousands of mobile apps and hundreds of thousands of people take surveys on our platform every day.

2) Please describe and explain the type(s) of online sample sources from which you get respondents. Are these databases? Actively managed research panels? Direct marketing lists? Social networks? Web intercept (also known as river) samples?

TapResearch respondents opt-into our survey experience from within popular mobile apps and games in order to earn rewards in the app. We are neither a managed double opt-in panel nor river sample. We are a new category of sample source in which the respondents are fully profiled and vetted for quality but are not necessarily registered members.

3) If you provide samples from more than one source: How are the different sample sources blended together to ensure validity? How can this be replicated over time to provide reliability? How do you deal with the possibility of duplication of respondents across sources?

The TapResearch Audience Network is comprised of thousands of apps that are extremely diverse but are operated as one sample source. Each project is fulfilled across the diverse network to ensure each project is as representative as possible. All respondents are profiled and deduped by IP address and browser cookie.

4) Are your sample source(s) used solely for market research? If not, what other purposes are they used for?

Yes, TapResearch sample is only used for market research purposes.

Sample Sources and Recruitment

5) How do you source groups that may be hard to reach on the internet?

By reaching respondents primarily via mobile apps, we reach the largest possible population. In most markets mobile devices, and mobile apps in particular, are the dominant way people access the internet.

6) If, on a particular project, you need to supplement your sample(s) with sample(s) from other providers, how do you select those partners? Is it your policy to notify a client in advance when using a third party provider?

TapResearch does not subcontract 3rd party suppliers so this is not relevant.

7) What steps do you take to achieve a representative sample of the target population?

Our approach to achieving a representative sample starts with creating the largest possible addressable population. From there, we balance sample according to customer specifications or census distributions.

8) Do you employ a survey router?

No, TapResearch does not employ a router. Respondents are provided basic length and incentive information about each survey opportunity and make their own determinations about which surveys in which to participate.

9) If you use a router: Please describe the allocation process within your router. How do you decide which surveys might be considered for a respondent? On what priority basis are respondents allocated to surveys?

Not applicable as TapResearch does not use a router.

10) If you use a router: What measures do you take to guard against, or mitigate, any bias arising from employing a router? How do you measure and report any bias?

Not applicable as TapResearch does not use a router.

Sampling and Project Management

11) If you use a router: Who in your company sets the parameters of the router? Is it a dedicated team or individual project managers?

Not applicable as TapResearch does not use a router.

12) What profiling data is held on respondents? How is it done? How does this differ across sample sources? How is it kept up-to-date? If no relevant profiling data is held, how are low incidence projects dealt with?

TapResearch respondents complete a profiling survey that includes a consistent set of standard profiling questions including age, gender, ethnicity, postal code, employment and parental status. Over time, additional profiling data is collected through profiling questionnaires and individual screening questions. These additional data points will vary from respondent to respondent to some degree.

This data is stored in order to improve feasibility calculations and improve the respondent experience. In order to ensure the data is up to date, it is refreshed every 90 days.

13) Please describe your survey invitation process. What is the proposition that people are offered to take part in individual surveys? What information about the project itself is given in the process? Apart from direct invitations to specific surveys (or to a router), what other means of invitation to surveys are respondents exposed to? You should note that not all invitations to participate take the form of emails.

Through our integrations in mobile apps, respondents decide when they want to take a survey. The proposition for respondents is to take a survey and earn in-app rewards for doing so. The rewards range from virtual currency to advancement in a game to earning premium subscriptions.

Respondents are given limited information about each survey. The data they see includes the length, rewards amount (in the local ‘currency’ of the app they are using) and a star rating based on survey experience by other users.

We do not send email invitations to surveys.

14) Please describe the incentives that respondents are offered for taking part in your surveys. How does this differ by sample source, by interview length, by respondent characteristics?

TapResearch respondents earn virtual currency and rewards for participating in surveys. All respondents are paid, even if they do not fully complete a survey.

The specific respondent incentive type varies by app (e.g. coins in one app, gems in another, points in another). The value of the incentive is based on several factors including the price the customer is paying per complete, survey length, incidence rate, conversion rate, disqualification and over quota rates.

15) What information about a project do you need in order to give an accurate estimate of feasibility using your own resources?

To provide accurate feasibility, we ask for length of interview (LOI), incidence rate (IR), mobile completability, respondent criteria and any specific quotas.

16) Do you measure respondent satisfaction? Is this information made available to clients?

We solicit feedback through our web app after each survey in the form of a star rating, user comments and our support flow. We often use this data to help customers understand the performance of their survey project in the field and to identify technical issues.

17) What information do you provide to debrief your client after the project has finished?

In addition to regular updates and statistics throughout the duration of a project, we make all data available upon request including # of completes, number of survey starts, DQs, OQs and incompletes in addition to respondent profile data for all completed surveys.

18) Who is responsible for data quality checks? If it is you, do you have in place procedures to reduce or eliminate undesired within survey behaviours, such as (a) random responding, (b) Illogical or inconsistent responding, (c) overuse of item non-response (e.g. “Don’t Know”) or (d) speeding (too rapid survey completion)? Please describe these procedures.

TapResearch is responsible for the data quality of the panelists we send into surveys. In order to ensure our panelists are real and attentive, we employ several quality control mechanisms and categorically focus on mobile app sources with non-cash rewards that are significantly less prone to fraud. Our mitigation efforts include eliminating suspicious IP addresses, proxy traffic, and users who fail consistency checks. We classify lower quality or fraudulent users and block them from accessing surveys.

19) How often can the same individual be contacted to take part in a survey within a specified period whether they respond to the contact or not? How does this vary across your sample sources?

TapResearch does not send invitations to users, however through respondent and device identifiers, we are able to identify specific users and give them surveys within the specified time period.

20) How often can the same individual take part in a survey within a specified period? How does this vary across your sample sources? How do you manage this within categories and/or time periods?

TapResearch generally does not allow the same individual to take part in a survey multiple times. In the case of a tracker or wave study that allows repeat entry, our project managers have the ability to select custom re-entry exclusion intervals that meet the client’s needs.

Data Quality and Validation

21) Do you maintain individual level data such as recent participation history, date of entry, source, etc., on your survey respondents? Are you able to supply your client with a project analysis of such individual level data?

Yes. We maintain a complete record of each respondent including when they attempt, qualify for and complete surveys. In addition, we know from which app each of them originates. Upon client request, we are able to make any of this data available.

22) Do you have a confirmation of respondent identity procedure? Do you have procedures to detect fraudulent respondents? Please describe these procedures as they are implemented at sample source registration and/or at the point of entry to a survey or router. If you offer B2B samples what are the procedures there, if any?

In addition to the measures described above in question 18, we measure answer consistency and acceptance rates to identify lower quality respondents and sources in order to proactively manage overall sample quality across our network.

23) Please describe the ‘opt-in for market research’ processes for all your online sample sources.

TapResearch uses a double opt-in process in for all respondents. In this process, a prospective panelists first elects to complete a survey and, subsequently, is asked to complete a set of profiling and security screening questions, including an acknowledgement of our Terms and Privacy Policy. From there, the user opts into each survey opportunity on their own accord.

24) Please provide a link to your Privacy Policy. How is your Privacy Policy provided to your respondents?

The TapResearch Privacy Policy is available at: https://www.tapresearch.com/user/privacy.

Each respondent is presented with this link in conjunction with the first demographic question (age verification) and is asked to agree with the terms or terminate their session.

25) Please describe the measures you take to ensure data protection and data security.

Respondent information gathered through our website is always SSL encrypted. All user data is stored in firewalled datacenters in the continental USA, and backed up on an hourly basis. Access to this data is only allowed through SSH secured connections by a restricted set of employees.

26) What practices do you follow to decide whether online research should be used to present commercially sensitive client data or materials to survey respondents?

As a sample provider, the contents of our surveys are managed by our clients. We work with them in cases where confidentiality is important to provide the necessary agreements or messaging to our respondents.

Policies and Compliance

27) Are you certified to any specific quality system? If so, which one(s)?

TapResearch has developed its own suite of quality measures to detect fraudulent users, bots and other malicious and negligent activity and behavior.

28) Do you conduct online surveys with children and young people? If so, do you adhere to the standards that ESOMAR provides? What other rules or standards, for example COPPA in the United States, do you comply with?

We enforce minimum age requirements based on jurisdiction (e.g. you must be 13 or older to participate in the United States). We comply with COPPA in the US, GDPR in Europe and will comply with CCPA in California.

Contact Us

www.tapresearch.com
support@tapresearch.com

1010 El Camino Real, Suite 300
Menlo Park, CA 94025