Hey Don
This is a stunning contribution- thanks. I am in the process of doing
research myself, and this is a HUGE help.
Where does one find out about the Small Business Market in the
AsiaPacific Region?
Bede :-)
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 06/21/01 01:08 >>>
Hi
I have recently doing a lot of online market research and thought
others may
be interested in an approach which I have found quite successful.
First I start with identifying the keywords associated with the
industry
that I'm researching. For example in doing market research for a
health-focused application I searched words like healthcare,
informatics,
system, application, hospital, provider, and of course the targeted
geographic region. I find it pays to use 4-6 search keywords per search
as
searching on only one word typically returns too many results. It's
nearly
always trial and error!
For best global results I recommend www.google.com but also use
regional
search engines where appropriate e.g. www.searchnz.co.nz (NZ)
www.anzwers.com.au (Australia). Another good multi-search engine is
www.dogpile.com which produces results from multiple search engines.
Google
is especially good for searching within the first batch or batches of
search
results. It's also good to use to search a specific website. e.g
entering
Frank Nobilo site:www.pgatour.com returns a list of references to Frank
on
the PGA site.
Typically you will find that there are several information portals
associated with the particular line of business (LOB). For example
while
looking at the ports market I found www.portguide.com,
www.world-ports.com,
www.containershipping.com to name a few. Usually there are also
consultants
closely associated with the LOB that offer some free content which can
be
very useful in identifying the other market players, and in some cases
can
even identify what technologies are being used by potential customers.
They
may also provide revenue figures and other market sizing data.
Government websites are also useful but can be hard to get through.
It's
important to understand the relevant legislation in the target market
which
is where some of the country profile sites I list come into their own.
Having identified the market players (vendors/competitors, customers,
distributors, government, non-government bodies/societies/associations)
you
can then look at market publications, market events/conferences.
Here's some links I have found useful.
Market/Country profiles
http://libweb.uncc.edu/ref-bus/vibe1.htm this page has a number of
links
that are helpful in putting together a country profile.
http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/sc_mrkti/ibin/engdoc/dyna_ccg.html Industry
Canada
site that lets you put together multiple country profiles with
self-selected
parameters covering economic trends/outlook, trade
regulations/standards,
investment climate, and general info such as business travel guides and
so
on.
http://www.nabe.com/publib/links/intllink.htm enormous collection of
links
on this National Association of Business Economics (US) page to orgs
like
World Bank, OECD, IMF, UN etc.
http://www.tradepartners.gov.uk/index_page.html UK site detailing
sector
reports in 260 countries.
http://home3.americanexpress.com/smallbusiness/resources/expanding/global/co
untries.shtml AMEX site detailing countries and business
travel/protocols.
http://www.oilsurvey.com/php/countries.php3?chosenCountry=0&chosenCategory=0
has a good country profile service that offers extensive targeted
external
links for a selected country.
http://www.tradeport.org/ts/countries/ US govt country profiles
http://travel.state.gov US State Department Bureau of Consular Affairs
http://home.sprintmail.com/~debflanagan/international.html more good
international trade/business links
Company, Stocks & Financial profiles
http://www.forbes.com/
http://www.wrhambrecht.com/
http://www.hoovers.com
http://www.barrons.com/ & http://www.wsj.com (Wall Street Journal)
Various
http://www.feer.com/ Far Eastern Economic Review
http://www.americaeconomia.com/ Latin America economy (Spanish and
Portuguese only - use http://world.altavista.com for [somewhat
understandable] online translations)
http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/romans/fdtf.html tons of links to US
government data
Any other good sites out there for (preferably free) online research??
regards
Don Rae
Manager - Internet Services & Market Research
JADE Marketing
21 Sheffield Crescent
PO Box 20-152
Christchurch, New Zealand
tel: +64 3 365 2500 xt 3146
fax: +64 3 358 6050
mob: 021 668 129
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
URL: http://www.discoverjade.com
(JADE is a division of Aoraki Corporation Limited)
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