Tokyo, Japan- 24 March, 2010: Research Panel Asia Inc. (RPA) announced that its local subsidiary, Research Panel Korea Inc.(RPK) has launched its service site to build a new online research panel in South Korea.

RPA established its local subsidiary Research Panel Korea Inc. on 2 March, 2010 to focus in deploying a new online service for proprietary panel recruitment, and today its service site "Panel Now" (http://www.panelnow.co.kr) has been officially launched.

The internet penetration rate in South Korea is now over 80% (Korea National Statistical Office 2009) which ranks top in the region, however the online research market still has a high future growth potential which RPA looks into.
Now with full readiness to hold the top three demanded countries for market research (Japan, China, and South Korea), RPA aims to further cover the regional demands from the global market research companies with local insights.
During the initial year, RPK will aim for 100K online panelists and will continuously seek for opportunities to launch new services in the country. Moreover, appointing a local Korean staff as a board member, Research Panel Korea Inc. will venture into the market with balanced speed and consistency.

Market Overview

Asia's economic growth has been accelerating as a global production base, and with this the market research demand for the APAC region has been increasing in multiplying pace. According to the ESOMAR Industry Report 2009, the market size ranking of the APAC region shows first Japan, second China, and third as South Korea, so even within the region these three countries are now essential for market comprehension.

Message from CEO

Korea is the first country in Asia where online research was started before its birth in Japan. The country is also one of the best places for online research in the world on the basis of its well-known high penetration rate of internet nationwide.
This new launch of Korean panel service means we will be able to supply online panels of the top 3 countries, Japan, China and Korea, in Asia in terms of its market size in the region. This is a significant step for our company to be a one-stop regional panel supplier for Asia.
It is really exciting to have this opportunity of developing a high-quality and high-performance online panel in Korea. We believe only a useful online service will produce a good online research product, as we successfully developed panels in Japan and China, and will keep that approach in Korea as well. Our agreement with Interpark.com, for a point exchange and panel building, is a huge achievement for us to start with from the said policy, and we will continue our effort to add more and more partners for a better panel and a better service for our panelists.

About Panel Now

At Panel Now, respondents will be rewarded 100-3,000 "Panel Now Points", which are convertible into cash from 5,000 points.
Collaborating with "INTERPARK INT Co.,Ltd" (http://www.interpark.com) which is one of the largest online shopping mall in Korea which holds over 14 million members, the points are exchangeable to I-Points (Interpark's original point system) as well.

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