I think this came out a few weeks ago, but still worth reporting. Results of a recent study done by Greenfield Online (and / or Ciao, not really sure what’s the right way to quote them) shows that online market research spending will continue to grow.

“Some 82 percent of market researchers surveyed in North America and 87 percent in Europe predict that their use of online respondent providers will increase in the next 12 months. That’s up from 76 percent and 85 percent, respectively, from November 2005″

The results are actually very interesting. These are some of the highlights:

• B2B studies account for 34% in Europe and 25% in the US.
• The two most important reasons to do online research remain time and competitive pricing.
• Consumer goods is still the top industry using online research.

I don’t think anyone had any doubts about online research continue to growing. A lot of research that could be done online is still being done traditionally and it will still take time for agencies to switch. Not to mention what’s going on in less mature markets (like Latin America) were the proportion of online research is a lot smaller and growth potential a lot bigger.
You can see more of the results here:

Use of Online Surveys for Market Research to Increase [MarketingCharts.com]