Can We Please Stop Giving Credibility To Junk Industry Research Factories Out Of India?

November 11, 2022 by Dave Haynes

I’ve started pointing out, via social media, when another publication that produces material about the digital signage industry happily copies and pastes “research” from boiler room operations in India. There’s no pleasure for me in taking a gentle swipe at another publication, but people read its material and likely assume that if it was run through somebody with editor in his or her title, it must have been given at least SOME BS filtering.

Nope.

I have written about this too many times, but some trade publishers still treat these inevitably sunny, big number forecasts as credible. They’re not. It wouldn’t matter, except the “data” from the PR keeps turning up in the sales decks and PR of companies who want a number that sizes aspects of the industry. So there’s a decent chance someone will fire up a presentation deck at a DSE educational session next week that blithely references how digital signage is forecast to be a $XXX industry by some year or other.

For example, from this morning’s run through digital signage press releases:

The Pixel Pitch LED Market revenues were estimated at US$1 Bn in 2021 and is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 17.4% from 2022-2032, according to a recently published Future Market Insights report. By the end of 2032, the market is expected to reach a valuation of US$ 13.6 Bn. Digital Signage segment is forecasted to grow at the highest CAGR of over 18.1% during 2022-2032.

Users need their message to be seen which makes pixel pitch important in digital signage. Pixel pitch LED screens has a direct effect on the optimal viewing distance. The ability to see individual pixels allows the viewer to approach the display more closely without being distracted. The lower the pitch, the closer the viewer can stand to the screen while still seeing a clear image.

A higher pitch is required for closer viewing situations, such as an airport, chain store, live stream studios, or any other location where people will be in close proximity and will want to read the information. A lower pitch is used for long-distance viewings, such as in a sports stadium with hundreds of yards of spectators.

What the hell is the Pixel Pitch LED Market???

On any given day, there are two or three “forecasts” about digital signage technology curated in a Google Alerts digest. There are a few “tells” for people who read the opening lines of these reports and still think they’d find substance:

1 – The real head office (not virtual ones in the US or UK) is in Pune, India. The “global headquarters” of these guys is a Regus co-working space and virtual office in Newark, Delaware;

2 – There are several research firms in the same building – at least three at the address listed by these guys;

3 – The press releases for the reports rattle off names of companies you didn’t know were in the line of business being analyzed, sometimes because they’re not;

4 – The biggest one: the research firm has no specialized focus on the industry, and produces reports on anything that looks like an industry … and therefore might have companies that would buy a report on it. Here are some upcoming reports promised by this firm:

If you think a research team that covers everything from insulation and wine bags to flower extracts knows a damn thing about LED displays or other aspects of pro AV, good luck!

There ARE legitimate research companies covering the pro display market, though really no one is analyzing the CMS software side of it (too small, I think). UK-based Futuresource Consulting sent six people to InfoComm in June to walk the floor, meeting with vendors and build a full sense of what’s happening in pro AV. Research firms that send analysts to the key events in the industry, and have deep contacts and trust within the industry, have the foundation to produce credible reports. Scouring websites from an office in India won’t do it. Omdia and Display Supply Chain also have credible analyses on the display side of this industry.

 

 

  1. Craig K says:

    Marketing VPs have insatiable appetite for bigger and bigger numbers.. I maintain Market Research page for kiosks where I actually have a section listing “Data Mart” reports aka pick your poison. Internet scraping. We ended up doing our own report and came in at 2.8B market. Some of the datamarts come in at 45B. https://kioskindustry.org/kiosk-market-research-2022-trends-in-self-service-facts-factoids-v2/

    1. Jonathan w says:

      The article is interesting. Are you affiliated to futuresource consulting? You have singled out their preparedness .. Hence curious..

      1. Dave Haynes says:

        No I am not affiliated with Futuresource. If you read the last paragraph again you will see I also mention Omdia and Display Supply Chain.

  2. Wes Dixon says:

    Thank you!

  3. Rein says:

    To be fair, I didn’t know digital signage was an industry until somebody mentioned it while trying to sell me duct cleaning services. 😉

  4. Ken Goldberg says:

    Dave: You can never sound the alarm on these specious research reports too often. They are useless scams preying on the uninitiated and the desperate. I am sure that many sophisticated investors have been duped by taking numbers thrown out by these people as legitimate.

    It is very much like the “publications” that will crown anyone with $3,000 the top provider in their category. When I see a press release breathlessly referring to a company’s achievement of writing a check, I don’t know whether to laugh or feel sorry.

  5. Todd Fender says:

    Dave:

    Where was this article when I was at DisplaySearch and IHS?

    Actually, I do believe you wrote something similar several years back…and I am still in agreement with your assessment.

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