About Panelindex
Panel Size
- 3,710,000 active members in Panelindex till June , 2010.
- Active members are those who have involved in activities of idiaoyan in last 12 months.
Sampling Services
- Select qualified respondents based on the basic information, job, family, hobby and online behavior etc.
- Specialty Panel：Fashion Panel, IT Panel, Finance Panel etc.
Panel Source
Panelindex source
- Web cooperation: Strategic cooperating fellowship with many famous websites in China to recruit community members together.
- Search engine like Google & Baidu: Optimize the rank of our survey community www.idiaoyan.com on Chinese main Search engine.
- Blog/BBS: Establish our own research blog on China’s main blog websites like Sina blog, Sohu blog and MSN blog; Stable fellowship with about 500 BBS.
- Member spreading-out: Encourage our members to recommend friends join in iDiaoYan community by using MSN，QQ etc.
- Internet intercept: For the hard-to-find panel, we cooperate with some specialty website like IT website and mother baby website.
Advantage of Panelindex
- Large panel size: iDiaoYan have 3,710,000 online members up to June, 2010(Including online recruitment and cooperation member). By cooperating with many famous websites in China, our panel basically can represent the characters of Chinese Netizen even Chinese consumer.
- Abroad panel location distribution: Larg quantity in famous cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou etc.; almost the same quantity in secondary cities like Wuhan, Hefei, Ningbo; third class cities are also covered.
- Sub-panel: IT panel, Finance panel, Mother Baby panel etc.
- Strict quality control system: unique three level quality control methods ensure members’ validity and credit.
Panel Attributes (Data in columns personal and Family Status, City, Work Status and Occupation are upgraded in June, 2010, others are in January, 2010.)
Panel and Sample Management
Panel Recruitment
- 1. Opt-in process
- Lead people to access recruitment web via recommended by members etc.
- Introduce the necessity of member qualification; explain clearly the reason for providing personal information.
- Promise definitely that member information is only used for market research.
- Tell them that the owner and governor of panel is iDiaoYan company; our company abides all rules related with market research industry and privacy protection.
- To check their will to be member, they will be asked if approve the term of our member qualification.
- Panelists activate their account by clicking a link sent to them via email immediately after registration.
- Finally, members will be asked to fill in 3-5 character paper including demographic character and social character and be encouraged to fill in real name, ID and address.
- 2. Confirmation of Identity Procedure
- On the one hand we check cookie, IP and email to avoid duplicate entries. On the other hand we visit part of the members to ensure the quality of panel through telephone.
- Our system can mark the incomplete information members and remind them to fill in termly. Our members are willing to fill in real name and ID because they want to acquire commission which is transferred via bank.
- Warn member whose information in survey is not in accordance with the info of database for three times; If warned three times continually, such member will lose right to attend survey.
Data Collection and Management
- 1. Profile Data of Panel Members
5 categories of panel info collection:
Demography character: region/city, gender, age, salary, education etc.
Family character: marriage, income, family size (member), asset possession (car & house etc).
Career: company type, position, company size, work years etc.
Social psychology character: values, hobby, personality etc.
Behavior: internet usage, investment etc.
About 39% of the 3,710,000 members fill in the above information completely. The members will update personal info via our characteristic paper every year.
- 2. Individual-level Data Updating
We keep a history of every single panelist such as when they participated in a survey, etc.
We can provide clients with member’s latest data upon request.
- 3. Panel Capacity and Active Panel Size
- 4. Active members are those who have involved in activities of Idiaoyan in last 12 months.
Total panelists on Idiaoyan now are about 3,710,000.
Since our active users are normal publics, they can represent general consumer well.
- 5. Panel Attrition/Retention Rate
In the past one year, the attrition rate of panelindex is 39%; the calculation method is as following:
Attrition rate=lost member in past one year/total number of panelindex*100%
Definition for lost member: Don’t have mutual communication with us in the past one year. For example: neither enter our website nor click survey link in the past one year.
Sampling and Project Management
1. Sampling Process
- First of all, exclude panel that has joined in survey in the past period of time: members who joined in survey in the past one month or joined in similar survey in the past six months will be excluded.
- Then, establish sample batch: Screen out qualified member by combining member’s personal information in database and requests of research object.
- Finally, select sample randomly: select sample from the qualified member and send invitation to them.
2. Survey Invitation
We have unique link to avoid the same member join in the same survey for many times. The process is as following:
- The system creates many links. Every invitee has a unique ID in corresponding with this link.
- The system will match the link with selected member.
- We will send invitations to the members attending survey via our cluster-email system and BBS.
- The restriction term and requests of the survey will not be revealed to invited members.
- The invited members enter our system by inputting their user names and passwords to see the link. They can join in the survey after clicking the link. Those members who are not invited cannot see the link.
- Every link can only be used once.
A typical invitation mail is as following:
1)Unique URL to enter the questionnaire; 2) iDiaoYan web address; 3) survey information (Closed date, survey serial number, field work time, award); 4) member can choose not to join in survey; 5) email address that member supports; 6) privacy policy link.
through above methods, We are sure that only invited members can join in the survey once to avoid cheating.
3. Incentive System(s)
We have many incentive ways, among which points, prize and commission are used often. Only members who are qualified and answer the questionnaire carefully can get these awards.
We send award to members based on character, product’s penetration and the length of questionnaire etc. The hard to find panelist can get more prizes. We have clear explanation about the prize while inviting panelists.
4. Frequency of Survey Participation
We usually reserve the history record of member’s taking survey to control the frequency. They can attend survey reasonably and we try to avoid them join in survey overly. (Panelists who have recently participated in a study on the same subject can be removed from a new sample at the client's request)
- Each member can only join in survey once in a month, no more than 12 times a year.
- Member can not join in similar survey in 6 months.
5. Participation Rate
After sending invitation three days later, about 50% invitees will enter and click the link. Of all of them, about 35% are not qualified (finish survey via screen out question). 20% quit in the midway. And 30% are finished due to limited quota.
Therefore, excluding special survey, about 5% to 10% of invited members can finish the survey in 3 days. That’s why we ask partners provide 20 times links of the required objects.
6. Exclusion of Fake Samples
We adopt following measures:
- We have “pitfall” questions to filter respondent who cheats or is not serious.
- We find out suspicious respondent based on the ID is repeated or not.
- We have many logic questions in the paper. After finishing paper, our system can check the logic is coherent or not to filter respondent who cheats or is not serious.
7. What information do you provide to debrief your client after the project has finished?
After a research project closes, we send client with an email or a phone to confirm about the survey:
- Number of invited member
- How many click the link
- How many are screened out
- How many quit in the midway
- How many are dropped out due to limited quota
- Average time of finishing this visit
Policy and Compliance
1. Policy
We protect the member’s privacy strictly and won’t reveal their personal information if not authorized by them.
We obey Chinese’s law and regulations to do online research.
We have ICP licence. We iDiaoYan panelindex comply all guide lines of ESOMAR and CMRA.
2. Data Protection/Security Measures
Only system administrator can visit user’s information. About the data related with privacy, members can choose to open or not.
What’s more, user’s password is encrypted by irreversible MD5. For the sensitive data that needs to be transferred between browser and server, it is encrypted by DES which further ensures the security of user’s data.
3. Quality Management System
Identify member who register several users in our system via IP.
Close member’s ID whose registered information is not in accordance with data and which has been warned for three times for cheating.
Remove those members who don’t have any mutual communication with us in the past one year.
Delete those who refuse or ignore to update personal information in the past two years.
4. Surveys with Children and Infants
For the panelist who is 15 or above, we directly choose from panelindex and don’t need other’s permission because they are in the allowable range.
To research children younger than 15 (If a client requests to interview a child), we should contact their parents first to get their permission and then make further research.
