Wednesday, 2 March 2005

In just 5 years the Danish online research institute, Zapera, has moved up among the largest research institutes in Denmark. Following 4 years with annual growth rates averaging 30 percent in a stagnating market, the growth rate exceeded 50% in 2004. The company, employing 33 people with offices in Copenhagen and Stockholm, realised an after tax profit of more than DKK 2 million (approx. Euro 300.000) in 2004, corresponding to a double-digit profit margin. Thus Zapera has improved the profit of the year with more than 140% compared to 2003.

In the Nordic region, online research still covers less than ten percent of the total research market, but over the coming years internet research will grow tremendously, and the share of traditional telephone based research will decline correspondingly. Zapera is ready to take its share of this growth.

”In the USA, which usually is two to three years ahead of Europe, the online share now makes up 30% of the total research market. I have no doubt, that over the coming three to five years we shall see the online share make up one third of the Nordic market as well. This will be a development, in which Zapera will be one of the driving forces – with our exceptionel experience and competence and our principle of quality and dependability. Our goal is, that before the end of 2005, we shall be among the five largest research institutes in Denmark”, says Zapera’s Managing Director, Lars Lund-Nielsen.

Five years ago, Lars Lund-Nielsen founded the company together with his brother, Senior Research Director Mads Stenbjerre. Today, the company has conducted 3,000 online research projects – undoubtedly the highest volume of online research of any Nordic research institute. The company’s clients are among the largest and most quality conscious buyers of research in the Nordic region. Among these clients are Scandivian Airlines Systems, the Nordic banking firm ”Nordea”, the diary products firm ”Arla Foods”, and the accounting and consultancy firm ”PricewaterhouseCoopers”.

Zapera has established a unique Nordic panel consisting of more than 80,000 respondents in Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark. The panel is now being extended with the countries around the Baltic Ocean – starting with the Estonian panel.

As the first research institute in the Nordic region, Zapera ran opinion polls over the Internet in the autumn of 2001 in Norway and Denmark. Since then, the company, which specialises exclusively in online research, has shown the way for the rest of the industry, including introducing online exit polls in Denmark and Sweden and initiating the establishment of Nordic Online Research Forum - a unique forum of online experts, across borders, setting the agenda in the Nordic region for future online and panel questions.

More information:

Managing Director, Lars Lund-Nielsen, mobile +45 40 80 80 40 or e-mail lln@zapera.com.

Senior Research Director, Mads Stenbjerre, mobile +45 26 73 06 96 or e-mail ms@zapera.com.

Facts on Zapera:

Zapera was established in January 2000 as the first research institute focusing exclusively on Nordic online research. Via international partners, the company is now capable of running online research throughout the western world. Zapera has subsidiaries in Finland, Sweden and Denmark, serving around 300 clients in the Nordic region and has 33 employees at the offices in Copenhagen and Stockholm. The company has its own respondent panels in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Estonia. The profit for the year 2004 was DKK 2,041,610.