Asia Pacific Market Research That Accounts for 35 Different Markets, Not One

Most firms treat Asia Pacific as “China plus everything else.” That approach produces research where a survey designed for Shanghai gets translated and fielded in Jakarta, Bangkok, and Mumbai as if the same instrument could measure the same constructs across markets with fundamentally different consumer psychology, regulatory structures, and competitive landscapes. SIS designs APAC research programs that treat each market as distinct, with methodology adapted at the instrument level.

The region’s digital fragmentation compounds the challenge. China’s consumer internet operates inside a walled ecosystem built on WeChat, Alibaba, and Douyin. Japan’s e-commerce runs through Rakuten and Amazon Japan with LINE as the dominant messaging platform. India’s digital commerce has been reshaped by UPI payments and Jio’s mobile infrastructure. Vietnam’s rapid digitalization follows yet another pattern. A single “APAC digital consumer” study that ignores these platform-level differences produces data that misleads rather than informs.

SIS has operated in Asia Pacific for over four decades. Ruth Stanat established the firm’s APAC practice during Japan’s economic expansion and has maintained on-the-ground research capability through every subsequent market opening, from China’s WTO accession to Vietnam’s manufacturing boom to India’s digital transformation. That institutional knowledge of how Asian markets evolve is built into every study we scope.