Indian firm offers ‘missed call’ survey service

MobiGlobe’s Ring2Poll service works by getting respondents to call a number which cuts them off without picking up – so the caller incurs no cost but a ‘missed call’ is logged.

Companies publish poll questions through whatever means they choose, asking respondents to call a different phone number for each answer. Clients can track responses through an online portal, and caller’s numbers are recorded to prevent the same caller being counted more than once.

MobiGlobe acquires numbers from network providers and rents them to clients for use in surveys at 2,000 INR (£28 ) a month, plus 0.1 INR (about a tenth of one British penny) for every response received.

Researchers might question the self-selecting recruitment methodology but the firm says Ring2Poll is a way of harnessing India’s 800 million mobile subscribers for research by making it free. Respondents would otherwise usually incur a cost for a mobile survey, by either making or receiving a call or sending a text message.

The firm, set up two years ago by Hiremath Sangamesh and Kishore Keerthi, employs twelve people.