Menlo Park, California-headquartered social media company Facebook has now announced its new interest — market research. The company will be shifting its focus to reward-based market research programs, which means that all research participants will be compensated, Facebook said.
In a blog post on Tuesday (June 11), Sagee Ben-Zedeff, product manager at Facebook said that they are launching a new market research app called Study By Facebook. The app will collect data on which smartphone apps people download, what features they use inside those apps and how much time they spend on them.
Facebook said it will promote the Study through advertisements on the social network and elsewhere, and users must be 18 years or older to participate. The company said it will compensate those who download Study, however, not many details are available on the plan.
For now, the app will only be available in the US and India. Facebook is tying up with Applause, who is experienced in managing this type of market research and works with many other companies in the industry.
They’ll manage the registration process, all compensation to participants, and customer support. Through the programme, Facebook will collect and analyse information including:
- The apps installed on a participant’s phone
- The amount of time spent using those apps
- Participant’s country, device and network type
- App activity names, which may show us the names of app features participants are using
The company said it will take the same approach going forward with other market research projects that help us understand how people use different products and services.
It is interesting to note that this isn’t the first time Facebook is trying its hand at market research. Earlier this year after it was learned Facebook was collecting data from teens, the company had to shut down its Facebook Research App. Also, the company shut down Onavo, a separate app it offered that routed a user’s web activity through a virtual private network to make it more secure, but also gave Facebook valuable insights into internet activity and behavior.