Africa and Middle East: Unpacking growth amidst challenges

The following article is an excerpt from ESOMAR’s Global Research Software 2024. This report provides the most comprehensive overview of the state of the insights industry and the evolving research software sector worldwide, using data collected by national research associations, leading companies, independent analysts, and ESOMAR representatives.

Africa and Middle East continued to display comparatively high inflation rates, which challenged an otherwise rising industry. The promising growth of the industry in absolute terms, second-highest globally at 9.2%, turned negative when accounting for inflation at -1.2% in net terms. This shows that the industry in these regions continues to experience difficulties with settling as it encounters a variety of social, economic, monetary, and political challenges.

The fastest-growing sector, like for the rest of the regions, was research software with an absolute growth of 15.5%. This sector was the only one to remain positive even after factoring in inflation.

Countries in these regions have historically only provided data on the market research industry; hence, the estimated turnovers for the industry remain unchanged from last year’s edition of this report despite having improved the approach. Read more about this new approach in Chapter 1 of this report.

Like every year, ESOMAR continues to encourage countries in these regions to study their local markets to understand the local context, to better defend the interests of the players in each country, and to be able to properly place the region within the global context. With growing presence of research software sector in the region, ESOMAR hopes to welcome more countries to survey not just market research sector but also research software and reporting sectors in the coming years.

The research software sector in Africa and Middle East saw significant growth from 2019 to 2023, with digital data analytics playing a dominant role. In 2023, digital data analytics reached US$1.00 billion, marking an 18.4% increase from 2022 and accounting for 67% of the region’s research software turnover. This growth reflects the increasing importance of data analytics across the region, although it lags behind other regions such as the US and Europe.

Social listening and communities grew by 7.0% from 2022 to 2023, reaching US$232 million. Despite its modest share compared to the digital data analytics (16% of the sector’s turnover in the region), this segment’s share demonstrates its role in understanding online consumer behaviour.

Self-serve research platforms grew strongly by 16.1% in 2023, reaching US$182 million. This segment represented 12% of the region’s research software turnover, highlighting the growing demand for time and cost-effective research solutions. The growth rate of this segment is right behind that of Asia Pacific, suggesting that the self-serve platform trend is gaining traction in Africa and Middle East as well.

Enterprise feedback management (EFM) experienced modest growth at 5.4%, reaching US$71 million in 2023 and representing 5% of the market. The gradual increase in EFM adoption reflects a steady focus on customer feedback systems.

Overall, Africa and Middle East are experiencing strong growth across all segments, particularly in self-serve research platforms, indicating an increasing demand for accessible research tools in the region.

The saga continues in ESOMAR’s Global Research Software 2024. Download your copy now!

Also, for an extra EUR 90, readers can now download the report on the core market research sector—ESOMAR’s Global Market Research 2024.