articles on market research

• SUGGESTED TOPICS
• The Magazine
• Newsletters
• Managing Yourself
• Managing Teams
• Work-life Balance
• The Big Idea
• Data & Visuals
• Reading Lists
• Case Selections
• HBR Learning
• Topic Feeds
• Account Settings
• Email Preferences

Market research

• Sales and marketing
• Business management

What's the Value of a Like?

• Leslie K. John
• Daniel Mochon
• Oliver Emrich
• Janet Schwartz
• From the March–April 2017 Issue

What Customers Want from the Collaborative Economy

• Alexandra Samuel
• October 08, 2015

4 Questions to Measure - and Boost - Customer Trust

• Ashley Reichheld
• Amelia Dunlop
• November 01, 2022

What Belongs in Your Basic Bundle?

• Stamos Kanellakis
• July 20, 2021

Real-Time Marketing

• Regis McKenna
• From the July–August 1995 Issue

The Paradox of Marketing to Caregivers

• Ximena Garcia-Rada
• Mary Steffel
• Elanor F. Williams
• Michael I. Norton
• September 28, 2021

Avatar-Based Marketing

• From the June 2006 Issue

What? Me, Worry?

• Gardiner Morse
• From the November 2005 Issue

Selling on TikTok and Taobao

• Thomas S. Robertson
• From the September–October 2022 Issue

"A Product That Lets People Hold On to Their Habits"

• David Champion
• From the January–February 2017 Issue

B2B Sales Culture Must Change to Make the Most of Digital Tools

• Prabhakant Sinha
• Arun Shastri
• Sally E. Lorimer
• March 15, 2023

Use Inclusive Marketing to Reach New Customers

• Simone Ahuja
• May 31, 2012

Unblocking Women's Paths to the Boardroom

• Monique Valcour
• October 31, 2012

How Markets Help Marketers

• Anita Elberse
• September 01, 2005

Pricey Encounters

• Joseph C. Nunes
• Peter Boatwright
• From the July–August 2001 Issue

Research: Political Polarization Is Changing How Americans Work and Shop

• Christopher McConnell
• Matthew Levendusky
• Neil Malhotra
• Yotam Margalit
• May 19, 2017

What Men Think They Know About Executive Women

• Dawn S. Carlson
• K. Michele Kacmar
• Dwayne Whitten
• From the September 2006 Issue

Case of the Profitless PC (HBR Case Study and Commentary)

• Andy Blackburn
• Matt Halprin
• Ruth Veloria
• Donna Dubinsky
• Larry Keeley
• George Quesnelle
• Philip Pifer
• Geoff Moore
• From the November-December 1998 Issue

Validating Product-Market Fit in the Real World

• Heather Myers
• Zasima Razack
• December 22, 2022

How Companies Can Meet the Needs of a Changing Workforce

• Avivah Wittenberg-Cox
• December 18, 2020

Keroche (E): Considering Additional Capacity

• Ramon Casadesus-Masanell
• Pippa Tubman Armerding
• September 23, 2019

Chase Sapphire: Creating a Millennial Cult Brand

• Shelle Santana
• Christine Snively
• September 28, 2017

Keroche (F): Future Growth Plans

Catalina in the digital age.

• Robert J. Dolan
• Uma R. Karmarkar
• August 06, 2013

Zydus Wellness: Nutralite's Marketing Twist

• Falguni Vasavada-Oza
• Smita Pranav Kothari
• Sudiksha Patil
• March 07, 2019

Philips: Redefining Telehealth

• Regina E. Herzlinger
• Alec Petersen
• Natalie Kindred
• Sara M McKinley
• March 24, 2021

Ford KA (A): The Market Research

• Markus Christen
• Gigi Cothier
• David A. Soberman
• Seh-Woong Chung
• January 01, 2003

Headspace vs. Calm: A Mindful Competition

• Ayelet Israeli
• Anne Wilson
• May 03, 2021

Introducing New Coke

• Susan Fournier
• December 17, 1999
• Robert Chess
• June 15, 2014

Columbia's Final Mission (Abridged) (B)

• Amy C. Edmondson
• Kerry Herman
• May 15, 2012

Saxonville Sausage

• June 15, 2007

Researching a Company

• Meghan Dolan
• August 10, 2009

Seeing What's on Red Auerbach's Mind

• Joseph B. Lassiter
• John T. Gourville
• March 30, 2004

Cerenity Sanitizer: Marketing Research for New Product Launch (B)

• Anand Kumar Jaiswal
• Sachin K. Singh
• March 31, 2014

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (A)

• Laura Winig
• Andrea Wojnicki
• April 24, 2001

Understanding the Brand Equity of Nestlé Crunch Bar: A Market Research Case

• Gerald Zaltman
• January 12, 2019

Porcini's Pronto: "Great Italian cuisine without the wait!"

• James L. Heskett
• Richard Luecke
• April 04, 2011

Helping Chinese Consumers Making the Informed Choices: the Challenge of Trust

• February 01, 2014

THE YES: Reimagining the Future of E-Commerce with Artificial Intelligence (AI)

• Emma von Maur
• January 12, 2021

New Venture Simulation: The Food Truck Challenge, Quick Start Guide

• Harvard Business Publishing
• June 30, 2020

Popular Topics

Partner center.

BRAND NEW Two-Day LIVE Summit with 20+ Ecommerce Trailblazers.

• Skip to primary navigation
• Skip to main content

A magazine for young entrepreneurs

The best advice in entrepreneurship

Subscribe for exclusive access, the complete guide to market research: what it is, why you need it, and how to do it.

Written by Mary Kate Miller | June 1, 2021

Comments -->

Get real-time frameworks, tools, and inspiration to start and build your business. Subscribe here

Market research is a cornerstone of all successful, strategic businesses. It can also be daunting for entrepreneurs looking to launch a startup or start a side hustle . What is market research, anyway? And how do you…do it?

We’ll walk you through absolutely everything you need to know about the market research process so that by the end of this guide, you’ll be an expert in market research too. And what’s more important: you’ll have actionable steps you can take to start collecting your own market research.

What Is Market Research?

Market research is the organized process of gathering information about your target customers and market. Market research can help you better understand customer behavior and competitor strengths and weaknesses, as well as provide insight for the best strategies in launching new businesses and products. There are different ways to approach market research, including primary and secondary research and qualitative and quantitative research. The strongest approaches will include a combination of all four.

“Virtually every business can benefit from conducting some market research,” says Niles Koenigsberg of Real FiG Advertising + Marketing . “Market research can help you piece together your [business’s] strengths and weaknesses, along with your prospective opportunities, so that you can understand where your unique differentiators may lie.” Well-honed market research will help your brand stand out from the competition and help you see what you need to do to lead the market. It can also do so much more.

The Purposes of Market Research

Why do market research? It can help you…

• Pinpoint your target market, create buyer personas, and develop a more holistic understanding of your customer base and market.
• Understand current market conditions to evaluate risks and anticipate how your product or service will perform.
• Validate a concept prior to launch.
• Identify gaps in the market that your competitors have created or overlooked.
• Solve problems that have been left unresolved by the existing product/brand offerings.
• Identify opportunities and solutions for new products or services.
• Develop killer marketing strategies .

What Are the Benefits of Market Research?

Strong market research can help your business in many ways. It can…

• Strengthen your market position.
• Help you identify your strengths and weaknesses.
• Help you identify your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses.
• Minimize risk.
• Center your customers’ experience from the get-go.
• Help you create a dynamic strategy based on market conditions and customer needs/demands.

What Are the Basic Methods of Market Research?

The basic methods of market research include surveys, personal interviews, customer observation, and the review of secondary research. In addition to these basic methods, a forward-thinking market research approach incorporates data from the digital landscape like social media analysis, SEO research, gathering feedback via forums, and more. Throughout this guide, we will cover each of the methods commonly used in market research to give you a comprehensive overview.

Primary vs. Secondary Market Research

Primary and secondary are the two main types of market research you can do. The latter relies on research conducted by others. Primary research, on the other hand, refers to the fact-finding efforts you conduct on your own.

This approach is limited, however. It’s likely that the research objectives of these secondary data points differ from your own, and it can be difficult to confirm the veracity of their findings.

Primary Market Research

Primary research is more labor intensive, but it generally yields data that is exponentially more actionable. It can be conducted through interviews, surveys, online research, and your own data collection. Every new business should engage in primary market research prior to launch. It will help you validate that your idea has traction, and it will give you the information you need to help minimize financial risk.

You can hire an agency to conduct this research on your behalf. This brings the benefit of expertise, as you’ll likely work with a market research analyst. The downside is that hiring an agency can be expensive—too expensive for many burgeoning entrepreneurs. That brings us to the second approach. You can also do the market research yourself, which substantially reduces the financial burden of starting a new business .

Secondary Market Research

Secondary research includes resources like government databases and industry-specific data and publications. It can be beneficial to start your market research with secondary sources because it’s widely available and often free-to-access. This information will help you gain a broad overview of the market conditions for your new business.

Identify Your Goals and Your Audience

Before you begin conducting interviews or sending out surveys, you need to set your market research goals. At the end of your market research process, you want to have a clear idea of who your target market is—including demographic information like age, gender, and where they live—but you also want to start with a rough idea of who your audience might be and what you’re trying to achieve with market research.

You can pinpoint your objectives by asking yourself a series of guiding questions:

• What are you hoping to discover through your research?
• Who are you hoping to serve better because of your findings?
• What do you think your market is?
• Who are your competitors?
• Are you testing the reception of a new product category or do you want to see if your product or service solves the problem left by a current gap in the market?
• Are you just…testing the waters to get a sense of how people would react to a new brand?

Once you’ve narrowed down the “what” of your market research goals, you’re ready to move onto how you can best achieve them. Think of it like algebra. Many math problems start with “solve for x.” Once you know what you’re looking for, you can get to work trying to find it. It’s a heck of a lot easier to solve a problem when you know you’re looking for “x” than if you were to say “I’m gonna throw some numbers out there and see if I find a variable.”

How to Do Market Research

This guide outlines every component of a comprehensive market research effort. Take into consideration the goals you have established for your market research, as they will influence which of these elements you’ll want to include in your market research strategy.

Secondary Data

Secondary data allows you to utilize pre-existing data to garner a sense of market conditions and opportunities. You can rely on published market studies, white papers, and public competitive information to start your market research journey.

Secondary data, while useful, is limited and cannot substitute your own primary data. It’s best used for quantitative data that can provide background to your more specific inquiries.

Find Your Customers Online

Once you’ve identified your target market, you can use online gathering spaces and forums to gain insights and give yourself a competitive advantage. Rebecca McCusker of The Creative Content Shop recommends internet recon as a vital tool for gaining a sense of customer needs and sentiment. “Read their posts and comments on forums, YouTube video comments, Facebook group [comments], and even Amazon/Goodreads book comments to get in their heads and see what people are saying.”

If you’re interested in engaging with your target demographic online, there are some general rules you should follow. First, secure the consent of any group moderators to ensure that you are acting within the group guidelines. Failure to do so could result in your eviction from the group.

Not all comments have the same research value. “Focus on the comments and posts with the most comments and highest engagement,” says McCusker. These high-engagement posts can give you a sense of what is already connecting and gaining traction within the group.

Social media can also be a great avenue for finding interview subjects. “LinkedIn is very useful if your [target customer] has a very specific job or works in a very specific industry or sector. It’s amazing the amount of people that will be willing to help,” explains Miguel González, a marketing executive at Dealers League . “My advice here is BE BRAVE, go to LinkedIn, or even to people you know and ask them, do quick interviews and ask real people that belong to that market and segment and get your buyer persona information first hand.”

Market research interviews can provide direct feedback on your brand, product, or service and give you a better understanding of consumer pain points and interests.

When organizing your market research interviews, you want to pay special attention to the sample group you’re selecting, as it will directly impact the information you receive. According to Tanya Zhang, the co-founder of Nimble Made , you want to first determine whether you want to choose a representative sample—for example, interviewing people who match each of the buyer persona/customer profiles you’ve developed—or a random sample.

“A sampling of your usual persona styles, for example, can validate details that you’ve already established about your product, while a random sampling may [help you] discover a new way people may use your product,” Zhang says.

Market Surveys

Market surveys solicit customer inclinations regarding your potential product or service through a series of open-ended questions. This direct outreach to your target audience can provide information on your customers’ preferences, attitudes, buying potential, and more.

Every expert we asked voiced unanimous support for market surveys as a powerful tool for market research. With the advent of various survey tools with accessible pricing—or free use—it’s never been easier to assemble, disseminate, and gather market surveys. While it should also be noted that surveys shouldn’t replace customer interviews , they can be used to supplement customer interviews to give you feedback from a broader audience.

Who to Include in Market Surveys

• Current customers
• Past customers
• Your existing audience (such as social media/newsletter audiences)

Example Questions to Include in Market Surveys

While the exact questions will vary for each business, here are some common, helpful questions that you may want to consider for your market survey. Demographic Questions: the questions that help you understand, demographically, who your target customers are:

• “What is your age?”
• “Where do you live?”
• “What is your gender identity?”
• “What is your household income?”
• “What is your household size?”
• “What do you do for a living?”
• “What is your highest level of education?”

Product-Based Questions: Whether you’re seeking feedback for an existing brand or an entirely new one, these questions will help you get a sense of how people feel about your business, product, or service:

• “How well does/would our product/service meet your needs?”
• “How does our product/service compare to similar products/services that you use?”
• “How long have you been a customer?” or “What is the likelihood that you would be a customer of our brand?

Personal/Informative Questions: the deeper questions that help you understand how your audience thinks and what they care about.

• “What are your biggest challenges?”
• “What’s most important to you?”
• “What do you do for fun (hobbies, interests, activities)?”
• “Where do you seek new information when researching a new product?”
• “How do you like to make purchases?”
• “What is your preferred method for interacting with a brand?”

Survey Tools

Online survey tools make it easy to distribute surveys and collect responses. The best part is that there are many free tools available. If you’re making your own online survey, you may want to consider SurveyMonkey, Typeform, Google Forms, or Zoho Survey.

Competitive Analysis

A competitive analysis is a breakdown of how your business stacks up against the competition. There are many different ways to conduct this analysis. One of the most popular methods is a SWOT analysis, which stands for “strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.” This type of analysis is helpful because it gives you a more robust understanding of why a customer might choose a competitor over your business. Seeing how you stack up against the competition can give you the direction you need to carve out your place as a market leader.

Social Media Analysis

Social media has fundamentally changed the market research landscape, making it easier than ever to engage with a wide swath of consumers. Follow your current or potential competitors on social media to see what they’re posting and how their audience is engaging with it. Social media can also give you a lower cost opportunity for testing different messaging and brand positioning.

SEO Analysis and Opportunities

SEO analysis can help you identify the digital competition for getting the word out about your brand, product, or service. You won’t want to overlook this valuable information. Search listening tools offer a novel approach to understanding the market and generating the content strategy that will drive business. Tools like Google Trends and Awario can streamline this process.

Ready to Kick Your Business Into High Gear?

Now that you’ve completed the guide to market research you know you’re ready to put on your researcher hat to give your business the best start. Still not sure how actually… launch the thing? Our free mini-course can run you through the essentials for starting your side hustle .

About Mary Kate Miller

Mary Kate Miller writes about small business, real estate, and finance. In addition to writing for Foundr, her work has been published by The Washington Post, Teen Vogue, Bustle, and more. She lives in Chicago.

Related Posts

12 Instagram Growth Hacks For More Engaged Followers (Without Running Ads)

Create Viral Infographics That Boost Your Organic Traffic

How to Create a Video Sales Letter (Tips and Tricks from a 7-Figure Copywriter)

How to Write a Sales Email That Converts in 2024

What Is a Media Kit: How to Make One in 2024 (With Examples)

Namestorming: How to Choose a Brand Name in 20 Minutes or Less

10 Ways to Increase Brand Awareness without Increasing Your Budget

What Is a Content Creator? A Deep Dive Into This Evolving Industry

Content Creator vs Influencer: What’s the Difference?

How Much Do YouTube Ads Cost? A Beginner’s Pricing Breakdown

How to Get Podcast Sponsors Before Airing an Episode

How Founders Can Overcome Their Sales Fears with AJ Cassata

How to Grow Your YouTube Channel & Gain Subscribers Quickly

How to Write Good Instagram Captions That Hook Your Audience

Discovering the Best CRM for Consultants

FREE TRAINING FROM LEGIT FOUNDERS

Actionable Strategies for Starting & Growing Any Business.

• Join the AMA
• Find learning by topic
• Free learning resources for members
• Certification
• Training for teams
• Why learn with the AMA?
• Marketing News
• Academic Journals
• Guides & eBooks
• Marketing Job Board
• Academic Job Board
• AMA Foundation
• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
• Collegiate Resources
• Awards and Scholarships
• Sponsorship Opportunities
• Strategic Partnerships

We noticed that you are using Internet Explorer 11 or older that is not support any longer. Please consider using an alternative such as Microsoft Edge, Chrome, or Firefox.

Editorial Mission

Journal of Marketing Research  ( JMR ) delves into the latest thinking in marketing research concepts, methods, and applications from a broad range of scholars. It is included in both the  Financial Times  top 50 business journals and the University of Texas at Dallas research rankings journal list. Learn more about the editorial mission here .

Impact factor: 6.1 Scimago journal ranking: 6.321

AMA Members have access to all Journal of Marketing Research articles via AMA’s partner, SAGE Publishing. To access the full catalog of articles, please log in at the top of this page.

Recommended Reading

Scholarly Insight

How Fast-Fashion Copycats Hurt—and Help—High-End Fashion Brands

A Journal of Marketing Research study finds that a moderate degree of copying in fast fashion may actually help increase the popularity of high-end (luxury) brands.

Predicting the Unpredictable: How Sales Managers Can Get Better ROI from Predictive Sales Analytics Tools

Organizations increasingly use predictive analytics, but it’s not so clear how salespeople can use them to their advantage. A new Journal of Marketing Research study can help managers get more out of these tools.

Scholarly Insights Archive

Browse all the Journal of Marketing Research DocSIG Scholarly Insights.

For Authors

Editorial Leadership

• Associate Editors
• Editorial Review Board
• Advisory Board

Submit a Paper

• Submission Guidelines
• Submission Site
• JMR Editorial Statement

Editorial Policies

• AMA Journal Policies
• Journal of Marketing Research Policy for Research Transparency
• Decision Appeal Policy

IMPACT AT JMR

Using Identity to Secure Nonprofit Donations

To boost donation rates, nonprofits must ensure potential donors identify with their charitable appeals. These five research-based strategies can allow nonprofits to use identity to increase charitable donations and remove the guesswork from their campaigns.

Additional Resources

Research insights.

• Scholarly Insights by AMA DocSIG
• IMPACT at JMR

Special Issues

• Education and Marketing
• Marketing Insights from Multimedia Data
• 2022 Paul E. Green Award
• 2023 Weitz-Winer-O’Dell Award

Explore the Journal

• Current JMR Issue
• Articles in Advance
• Recently Accepted Manuscripts
• Get JMR Article Alerts
• Follow JMR on LinkedIn
• Subscribe to the JMR Updates Newsletter

By continuing to use this site, you accept the use of cookies, pixels and other technology that allows us to understand our users better and offer you tailored content. You can learn more about our privacy policy here

• Browse All Articles
• Newsletter Sign-Up

MarketingStrategy →

No results found in working knowledge.

• Were any results found in one of the other content buckets on the left?
• Try removing some search filters.
• Use different search filters.

Root out friction in every digital experience, super-charge conversion rates, and optimize digital self-service

Uncover insights from any interaction, deliver AI-powered agent coaching, and reduce cost to serve

Increase revenue and loyalty with real-time insights and recommendations delivered to teams on the ground

Know how your people feel and empower managers to improve employee engagement, productivity, and retention

Take action in the moments that matter most along the employee journey and drive bottom line growth

Whatever they’re are saying, wherever they’re saying it, know exactly what’s going on with your people

Get faster, richer insights with qual and quant tools that make powerful market research available to everyone

Run concept tests, pricing studies, prototyping + more with fast, powerful studies designed by UX research experts

Track your brand performance 24/7 and act quickly to respond to opportunities and challenges in your market

Explore the platform powering Experience Management

• Free Account
• For Digital
• For Customer Care
• For Human Resources
• For Researchers
• Financial Services
• All Industries

Popular Use Cases

• Customer Experience
• Employee Experience
• Employee Exit Interviews
• Net Promoter Score
• Voice of Customer
• Customer Success Hub
• Product Documentation
• Training & Certification
• XM Institute
• Popular Resources
• Customer Stories

Market Research

• Artificial Intelligence
• Partnerships
• Marketplace

The annual gathering of the experience leaders at the world’s iconic brands building breakthrough business results, live in Salt Lake City.

• English/AU & NZ
• Español/Europa
• Español/América Latina
• Português Brasileiro
• REQUEST DEMO
• Experience Management

Market Research Articles and Resources

We've put together this comprehensive and thorough Market Research guide to give you the tools and information you need to manage, strategize, measure and impact all aspects of the Market Research for your business.

Select a topic

Analysis & Reporting

Panels & Samples

Market Segmentation

Focus Groups

Text Analytics

Distribution & Response

Survey data analysis and best practices for reporting

Data can do beautiful things, but turning your survey results into clear, compelling analysis isn’t always a straightforward task. We’ve collected our tips for survey analysis along with a beginner’s guide to survey data and analysis tools. 20 min read

More Analysis & Reporting articles

What is a research panel (and should we have one)?

There is often confusion between having a research panel and buying a sample from a third party panel provider. In fact, these are two different solutions to the same need. To help you decide what’s right for you, we break down the difference between managing your own research panel and buying a sample. 10 min read

More Panels & Samples articles

How to determine sample size

Sample size can make or break your research project. Here’s how to master the delicate art of choosing the right sample size. 12 min read

More Sampling articles

What is a user persona and how do I make one?

Creating personas can be extremely beneficial for making effective design, product and content decisions. Learn how to make and utilize user personas with our guide below. 14 min read

More Market Segmentation articles

The ultimate guide to market research: How to conduct it like a pro

Wondering how to do market research? Or even where to start learning about it? Use our ultimate guide to understand the basics and discover how you can use market research to help your business. 27 min read

More Market Research articles

The definitive guide to focus groups

Interested in focus groups but not sure where to start? Use our definitive guide to grasp the essentials and learn how you can leverage focus groups to better know your audience. 15 min read

More Focus Groups articles

What is a survey? (Benefits, tips, best practices & free survey tools)

It’s a simple question. But as with many things, the answer is more complex than you’d think. Surveys can take many forms but are most common as a questionnaire, either written or online. 18 min read

More Surveys articles

Text analysis: definition, benefits & examples

Find out how text analysis software works, and how you can use it to find breakthrough insights in unstructured data to take your customer, employee, brand, and product experience programs to another level. Written by Rohan Sinha, Senior Principal CX at Qualtrics. 45 min read

More Text Analytics articles

User interviews: definition & questions to ask

What do your users need — and how should you engage with them? Here we explain how you can get to know your users, and their expectations of your products and services, with our complete guide to user interviews. 25 min read

More Interviews articles

How your survey distribution methods can impact your research results

Effective survey distribution means you can reach your target customers more effectively, get better response rates, and better quality data. Learn which survey distribution methods will give your team the best chance of success. 23 min read

More Distribution & Response articles

Real-time market research insights drive better decisions.

Modern market research means you can track consumer behavior across diverse segments, benchmark your company versus competitors, conduct complex academic research, and capture the insights you need to move the needle.

Today’s market research is predictive and collaborative so everyone in your organization has the same information to drive the business forward.

Research today shouldn’t just track change, it should provoke it.

Request Demo

Ready to learn more about Qualtrics?

Top Articles Related to Marketing Research

Learn all about Marketing Research. Quirks.com is the largest source of marketing research information.

Search Results

More Filters

Loading filters...

Article 2024 The Quirk's Event Chicago Shared Presentation Documents Quirk's Staff | April 8, 2024

Article How to overcome generative AI’s psychological barriers Jack Miles | April 2, 2024

Article Work and Play: Embroidery and creating without pressure Nancy Cox | April 2, 2024

Article Younger qualitative researchers struggle to find their place in a post-pandemic world Florian Groth, Rieke Burfeind | March 1, 2024

Article Five generative AI trends on CMOs’ minds today Steven Millman | March 1, 2024

Article The use of synthetic data in marketing research Marco Vriens, Chad Vidden, Rogier Verhulst | March 1, 2024

Article Removing self-bias when doing cross-cultural research Isabel Aneyba | March 1, 2024

Article Quirk's Time Capsule – March/April 2000 Quirk's Staff | March 1, 2024

Article Trade Talk: The value of being there Joseph Rydholm | March 1, 2024

Article The Q Report: In-house researchers offer tips for more harmonious client/vendor relationships Joseph Rydholm | March 1, 2024

Sponsored Article Glimpse: The next-generation research platform Neil Dixit, Adam Bai | March 1, 2024

Article 2024 The Quirk's Event Dallas Shared Presentation Documents Quirk's Staff | March 9, 2024

Article Quirk’s Event – Dallas 2024: Four key takeaways for insight pros Paula Catoira | March 8, 2024

Article The Quirk’s Event – Dallas: Five Presentations You Didn't Want to Miss Kevin Karty | March 4, 2024

Article Will AI redefine luxury marketing in 2024? Anka Twum-Baah | February 20, 2024

Advertisement

Supported by

the media equation

How Investigative Journalism Flourished in Hostile Russia

A new wave of news outlets has used conventional, and unconventional, methods to pierce the veil of Putin’s power.

• Share full article

By Ben Smith

The Russian language has introduced a few words that in recent years have been widely used and misused in English: disinformation, kompromat, Novichok.

But the one that blows my mind is “probiv.” It’s drawn from the word that means “to pierce” — or to enter something into a search bar. Today, it refers to the practice by which anyone can buy, for a couple of dollars on the social media app Telegram or hundreds on a dark web marketplace, the call records, cellphone geolocation or air travel records of anyone in Russia you want to track. Probiv is purchased by jealous spouses or curious business partners, and criminals of various sorts. But it has also been used recently, and explosively, by journalists and political activists, overlapping categories in Russia, where the chief opposition leader, Aleksei A. Navalny, often makes use of the tools of investigative journalism.

Probiv is only one of the factors that have made Russia , of all places, the most exciting place in the world for investigative journalism. There is a new wave of outlets, many using more conventional sourcing to pierce the veil of President Vladimir V. Putin’s power. And there is a growing online audience for their work in a country where the state controls, directly or indirectly, all of the major television networks.

The boom in independent journalism and criticism of the government has reached a level “unseen in our country since the end of the 1990s,” Denis Volkov, the deputy director of the Levada Center, a Russian public opinion research group, wrote recently.

Probiv has been a crucial part of that revival. The practice was at the heart of a stunning revelation late last year by the international investigative collective Bellingcat, working with the Russian site The Insider and other partners, identifying the agents from a secret Russian spy unit who poisoned Mr. Navalny. A reporter spent “a few hundred euros worth of cryptocurrency” for a trove of data. Then, in a riveting piece of theater, Mr. Navalny, working with Bellingcat, called one of those agents, pretending to be a senior government official, and tricked him into a confession. When Mr. Navalny returned to Russia after his treatment in Germany, he was promptly jailed for a parole violation in a case he has called fabricated, and now faces transport to a penal colony.

The irony is delicious, of Mr. Putin seeing his own tools of corruption and surveillance turned against him by the underpaid police and intelligence officials who put the secrets up for sale. “Whatever Putin does keeps backfiring,” said Maria Pevchikh, who runs the investigative unit at Mr. Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation.

Probiv is almost exclusively a Russian phenomenon. When Roman Dobrokhotov, who founded The Insider in 2013, was in Kyiv a couple of years ago, he said he asked a local journalist where he could find the phone records for someone he was researching and was surprised to learn that wasn’t a common practice. He said he realized that “Russia is possibly the most transparent country in the world,” adding, “If you have 10 bucks, you can find any information on anyone.”

The New York Times and some other major Western outlets don’t use probiv, on the principle that you shouldn’t pay for stolen information. Many Russian journalists debate the ethics and legality of it as well. Bellingcat’s probiv maestro, Christo Grozev, has said he spent his own money — the independent news site Meduza estimated it at more than $13,000 — unmasking murderous Russian spies. (He told The Washington Post that his vendor assumed he was a criminal, and was horrified to learn he was a journalist.) Mr. Dobrokhotov said he wouldn’t buy probiv himself, but had analyzed the data Mr. Grozev purchased. (CNN and Der Spiegel also collaborated on the investigation of Mr. Navalny’s poisoning.) Other reporters said it’s routine to use for research, but not to cite in a finished article. But for some, those norms are shifting, too.

“The audience doesn’t care whether you bought data or got it from a source,” said Roman Anin, the founder of iStories, a nonprofit Russian investigative site with a staff of 15. He said he had concluded that “since we live in a country where authorities are killing opposition leaders, let’s forget about these rules, because these stories are more important than our ethical rules.”

That portal into Vladimir Putin’s world has opened even as some American journalists covering Russian interference in the 2016 election produced overheated essays and viral Twitter threads. They cast Mr. Putin, in the American imagination, as an all-powerful puppet master and everyone whose name ends in the letter “v” as his agent. But it was actual Russians, running their websites on the margins of legality or from abroad, who opened windows into Mr. Putin’s real Russia. And what they’ve uncovered is unbelievable personal corruption, shadowy figures behind international political interference and murderous but sometimes inept security services.

Here are a few examples of these revelations:

The investigative nonprofit outlet Proekt identified Mr. Putin’s “secret family,” and found that the woman it linked to the president had acquired some $100 million in wealth from sources tied to the Russian state.

IStories used a trove of hacked emails to document how Mr. Putin’s former son-in-law built a huge fortune out of state connections.

Bellingcat, which was founded in London, and the Russia-based Insider identified , by name and photograph, the Russian agents who poisoned the defector Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England in 2018.

The media group RBC delved into the political machinery behind the troll farm interfering in U.S. elections.

Meduza exposed deep corruption in all corners of the Moscow city government, down to the funeral business.

Mr. Navalny’s foundation flew drones over Mr. Putin’s palace, a vast estate on the Black Sea that Mr. Navalny labeled “the World’s Biggest Bribe” in a scathing, mocking nearly two-hour video he released on his return to Russia last month. The video has been viewed more than 100 million times on YouTube.

There’s a tendency in parts of the American media right now to reflexively decry the rise of alternative voices and open platforms on social media, seeing them solely as vectors for misinformation or tools of Donald J. Trump. Russia is a potent reminder of the other side of that story, the power of these new platforms to challenge one of the world’s most corrupt governments. That’s why, for instance, Mr. Navalny was a vocal critic of Twitter’s decision to ban Mr. Trump, calling it an “unacceptable act of censorship.”

The new Russian investigative media is also resolutely of the internet. And much of it began with Mr. Navalny, a lawyer and blogger who created a style of YouTube investigation that draws more from the lightweight, meme-y formats of that platform than from heavily produced documentaries or newsmagazine investigations.

Mr. Navalny doesn’t cast himself as a journalist. “We are using investigative reporting as a tool to achieve our political ends,” his aide, Ms. Pevchikh, said. (One convention they don’t follow: getting comment from the target of an investigation.) Indeed, his relationship with the independent journalists can be complicated. Most are careful to maintain their identity as independent actors, not activists. They criticize him, but also message him their stories, hoping he’ll promote them to his own vast audience, and he publicly criticizes them, in turn, for being too soft on the Kremlin.

The new news outlets learned from Mr. Navalny as well. Many of them have imitated his style on YouTube. And he proved that certain lines could be crossed. What’s more, they all undoubtedly benefit from the homogeneity of the television networks. Imagine how much YouTube you would watch if the only news channels available were Fox News, Newsmax and OAN.

The traffic they see online also tells them they’re connecting.

“I see the numbers and I think that all this is not in vain,” said Roman Badanin, the founder of Proekt, for whom Mr. Putin’s hidden life has been a career-long obsession. (A confusingly high percentage of the founders of these new outlets are named Roman.) In a particularly surreal moment this month, the young woman who Proekt suggested was Mr. Putin’s daughter said — in a conversation on the social audio app Clubhouse with the reporter who wrote the article — that she was “grateful” for all the attention his reporting had brought … to her Instagram account.

Mr. Badanin, who modeled Proekt on the American nonprofit news organization ProPublica, said he had begun to see another sign of intense interest: financial support from his audience. About a third of the budget that supports a staff of 12, he said, now comes from donations averaging $8, mirroring the global trend toward news organizations relying on their readers. In Russia, some of this is still nascent. For instance, a colleague in Russia, Anton Troianovski, tells me that there’s a cafe near the Kurskaya Metro station where you can add to your bill a donation to MediaZona, which was founded by two members of the protest group Pussy Riot to hold the Russian justice system to account. But the protests against Mr. Navalny’s imprisonment also seem to be driving support for independent media, a phenomenon that The Bell, another of the new independent websites, christened “the Navalny Effect.”

That might help these outlets navigate a narrowing legal window in Mr. Putin’s decades-long game of cat-and-mouse with independent journalism. ( The government is also struggling to balance its citizens’ love of the open internet with the threat it can pose to government power.)

Many of the new outlets, along with BBC Russia, have drawn talent from a previous wave of independent voices that the government effectively put out of the investigations business. Some of the new outlets, like the Latvia-based Meduza, have their operations abroad. But many are incorporated overseas, even as their journalists live and work in Moscow. Some subsist on grants whose sources they keep confidential — a vulnerability the Russian government appears likely to exploit under a new law broadening restrictions on what it considers “foreign agents.”

Indeed, the sense of possibility is rivaled only by the sense of menace. Virtually every journalist I spoke to in Russia said they expected this period to end at any moment. In a particularly ominous sign, police arrested the editor of MediaZona, Sergei Smirnov, on Jan. 30 for retweeting a joke with an image that included the date and time of a protest. He was sentenced to 15 days in jail for violating the rules on holding public events, and journalists debated whether it was an incompetent mistake or a deliberate warning to his peers.

“To be an independent journalist in Russia is like being a lobster in a pot,” said Meduza’s editor in chief, Ivan Kolpakov. “They are boiling you, but you don’t know exactly when you will die.”

Ben Smith is the media columnist. He joined The Times in 2020 after eight years as founding editor in chief of BuzzFeed News. Before that, he covered politics for Politico, The New York Daily News, The New York Observer and The New York Sun. Email: [email protected] More about Ben Smith

• Data library

The Best Time to Sell in 2024: The Week of April 14-20

Home sellers who are hoping to sell this year and looking for the perfect time to list should start getting ready—because the best time to list a home in 2024 is approaching quickly. 

The week of April 14–20 is expected to have the ideal balance of housing market conditions that favor home sellers, more so than any other w eek in the year. A recent survey from Realtor.com ® found that the majority (53%) of home sellers took one month or less to get their home ready to list, so the time to start prepping is now. 

This selection comes from looking at seasonal trends from 2018–19 and 2021–23 data and calculating a Best Time to List score for each week of the year, based on a combination of housing metrics. Notably, mortgage rates are not included in the score as mortgage rate movement has more to do with the larger economic context, and not seasonal shifts.

The State of the Housing Market

We expect the 2024 housing market to behave according to typical seasonality, but offer slightly better conditions than 2023. Each week was scored based on favorability toward sellers—this included competition from other sellers (active listings and new listings), listing prices, market pace (days on the market), likelihood of price reductions, and homebuyer demand (views per property on Realtor.com). Percentile levels for each week were calculated along each metric and were then averaged together across metrics to determine a Best Time to List score. Rankings for each week were based on these Best Time to List scores.

2023 was a fairly glum year in housing, with prices remaining near record high levels while inventory levels suffered. Mortgage rates started the year in the mid-6% range and climbed to nearly 8% in October , continuing to weigh down the affordability of housing payments despite unremarkable price growth.

Home prices peaked at a median listing price of $445,000 nationally in June 2023 , falling short of the previous year’s all-time high. Though prices did not reach a new peak this year, they remained near year-ago levels, failing to offer much relief to buyers. Buyer demand remained stifled as home shoppers took a step back amid high prices, elevated mortgage rates, and low inventory. 

Though low housing demand set the tone for much of 2023, homes still spent significantly less time on the market than before the COVID-19 pandemic, and inventory remained well below pre-pandemic norms.

Many homeowners felt “locked in” by their current mortgage , hesitant to list their home for sale and trade a sub-4% mortgage for a 7%-plus mortgage, which kept new listing activity low for much of the year.

Builders slowed new construction activity slightly in 2023 amid low buyer demand and economic uncertainty . Both single- and multi-family housing starts fell relative to the previous few years, but both remained above pre-pandemic levels as builders aimed to fill some of the gap left by low existing-home inventory. Though starts waned, new-home completions climbed relative to the previous year, supplying much sought-after inventory for buyers and renters alike.

 Mortgage rates fell quickly toward the end of the year as the Fed signaled that rate cuts were likely for 2024 , and as a result, both buyer and seller activity ticked up slightly heading into the new year.

In February, new listing activity climbed 11.3% , resulting in 14.8% more for-sale inventory in the month than one year prior. Though selling activity has picked up, inventory remains nearly 40% below pre-pandemic levels, making it a good time to be a seller today . While some homebuyers are waiting for mortgage rates to fall further before entering the housing market, it’s still a good time for homeowners to sell as buyers continue to need more for-sale options.

Benefits of listing a home the week of April 14–20, 2024

At a national level, this week represents a balanced selection of market conditions that favor sellers. While it does not have the highest price or the lowest time on the market of the year, this week offers higher-than-average prices and lower-than-average time on the market while also offering a higher-than-average number of buyers—measured as viewers per listing.

While affordability will continue to be a challenge for buyers and sellers who are looking to buy, we expect lower mortgage rates and more new-construction inventory to offer some relief and inject some life back into the market. In more balanced housing market conditions, we expect the benefits of strategically listing during the most seasonally advantageous week to be greater.

Above-average prices:  Homes during this week have historically reached prices 1.1% higher than the average week throughout the year, and are typically 10.4% higher than the start of the year. This year is likely to look a lot like 2023 due to still-high housing costs. If 2024 follows the 2023 seasonal trend, the national median listing price could reach $7,400 above the average week, and $34,000 more than the start of the year. 

Above-average buyer demand: The number of buyers looking at a listing can determine how many offers a home gets and how quickly it sells. The more buyers looking at a home, the better for the seller, and in most years, buyers start earlier than sellers.

Historically, this week garnered 18.4% more views per listing than the typical week. However, in 2023, this week got 22.8% more views per listing than the average week throughout the year. If mortgage rates fall more significantly this spring, it is possible that demand will surge sooner. However, if mortgage rates don’t soften until later in the year, then buyers may hold off in hopes of lower rates.

According to the February Fannie Mae housing survey , a near-all-time survey-high 35% of respondents indicated that they expect mortgage rates to go down in the next 12 months. After climbing through February, mortgage rates eased in the latest data. Mortgage rate expectations could lead more buyers to hold off until mortgage rates fall further, which may mean a slower ramp-up in demand this spring.

Fast market pace: Thanks to above-average demand, homes sell more quickly during this week.

Historically, homes actively for sale during this week sold 17%, or roughly 9 days, faster than the average week. In the 2023 market, this week saw homes typically on the market for 46 days, 6 days faster than the year’s average and 7 days faster than was typical in 2019. The 2023 market moved more slowly than the previous few years due to affordability challenges, but the market pace picked up toward the end of the year and into 2024 as easing mortgage rates stoked buyer demand. If inventory levels remain relatively low, time on the market may pick up faster as buyers vie for fewer homes.

Lower competition from other sellers: A typical inventory trend would mean 13.7% fewer sellers on the market during this week compared with the average week throughout the year. With few exceptions, the number of sellers tends to increase from the beginning of the year until roughly November. Last year saw more significant inventory gains after the first four months as buyer demand cooled, but sellers responded by pulling back on listings once again by the end of the year. Active inventory was 7.9% higher at the start of 2024 versus 2023 with the highest beginning-of-year inventory since 2020 . However, inventory was still 39.7% lower than pre-pandemic levels. This gap means there continue to be opportunities for sellers who enter the market this spring.

Below-average price reductions: Price reductions tend to peak in the fall as sellers left on the market after the summer rush try to attract attention. Price reductions tend to be the lowest from late winter into spring as buyer activity ramps up.

During the Best Week, roughly 24.6% fewer homes have had a price reduction than the average week of the year, which translates to a 0.9 percentage point lower price-reduced share compared with the average week of the year. In 2023, this week saw roughly 8,000 fewer listings with price reductions than the average week of the year.

Market dynamics shift—baby steps toward affordability

The 2023 housing market continued the slowdown seen in the second half of 2022. Home sales fell to the lowest level in over a decade as buyers struggled with still-high home prices and elevated mortgage rates. Sellers largely kept to the sidelines, hesitant to trade their existing mortgage for one with a much higher interest rate.

Though buyer demand waned, low for-sale inventory meant that buyers had fewer choices and faced competition in many markets, especially more affordable locales . As mortgage rates improved at the very end of the year, buyer demand picked up, indicating that home shoppers are eagerly awaiting a more affordable housing market.

Based on a recent survey , 40% of prospective buyers would find a home purchase feasible if rates were below 6%, and 32% would feel the same if rates fell below 5%.

• Mortgage rates are expected to ease into the mid-6% range. Mortgage rates reached as high as 7.79% in 2023 before falling into the mid-to-high 6% range by the end of the year. We expect mortgage rates to remain in this range until incoming economic data suggests that inflation is slowing toward the 2% target level. To date, both employment and inflation have remained strong, which means that the Federal Open Market Committee is likely to hold off on any cuts to the federal funds rate until later in the year. Once rate cuts seem probable, mortgage rates are likely to ease.
• Prices tend to peak later, as does competition. Sellers should consider that peak prices later in the season also come with greater competition from other sellers for a similar-sized pool of buyers. Historically, by the end of June, while prices reached near-peak levels (+13.8%) compared with the start of the year, new sellers also surged, increasing to nearly 1.5 times higher than at the start of the year (+49.3%). More sellers mean more options for buyers and therefore more competition among sellers . Sellers can mitigate that risk by being an early entrant into the market, raising their already high odds of a successful close and likely negotiating favorable terms.
• Level of buyer and seller activity will be fairly dependent on mortgage rates. Many homeowners are hesitant to enter today’s housing market since their current mortgage rate is much lower than today’s prevailing rate. However, buyers are likely to return to the housing market eagerly upon mortgage rate improvements, which means sellers still stand to see favorable buyer attention on their home listing due to low inventory. While overall buyer demand may not be what it was in the past couple of years, many areas are still seeing competition for homes due to low inventory levels. 

What does this mean for sellers?

While we’ve identified april 14–20 as the best week to list for sellers, the housing market remains undersupplied, so a seller listing a well-priced, move-in ready home is likely to find success., because spring is generally the high season for real estate activity and buyers are more plentiful earlier rather than later in the year, listing earlier in the spring raises a seller’s odds of a successful sale. sellers will want to remember that it’s a process and get started well before their intended listing date. recent realtor.com survey data shows that sellers typically took between a couple of weeks to a couple of months to prepare and list their home for sale., what does this mean for homebuyers.

For buyers who have been facing still-high home prices and elevated mortgage rates, there is a key takeaway: The usual seasonal dynamics of the housing market, builder sentiment, and general economic shifts suggest that it’s going to get better.

Inventory improved in late 2023, though levels remain below pre-pandemic levels. So far in 2024, new single-family construction activity and homebuilder sentiment have remained steady, and home completions have remained strong, suggesting that new inventory is likely to provide buyers more options into the spring.

Historically, the number of views per listing has cooled in the late summer/early fall and tends to improve for buyers from that point forward. Additionally, by mid-August, the number of sellers with actively listed homes increased 29% over the beginning of the year, which means more options for buyers . Thus, buyers who can persist in their home searches are likely to catch a bit of a break in the sense that they can expect some more options to choose from in the weeks ahead. 

Best Time to List—50 Largest Metro Areas

Methodology.

Listing metrics (e.g., list prices) from 2018–19 and 2021–23 were measured on a weekly basis, with each week compared against a benchmark from the first full week of the year. Due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 was an uncharacteristic year and has therefore been excluded from the analysis. Averaging across the years yielded the “typical” seasonal trend for each metric. Percentile levels for each week were calculated along each metric (prices, listings, days on the market, etc.) and then averaged together across metrics to determine a Best Time to List score for each week. Rankings for each week were based on these Best Time to List scores.

Sign up for updates

Join our mailing list to receive the latest data and research.

Carl Zeiss Meditec AG Completes Acquisition of Dutch Ophthalmic Research Center (D.O.R.C.); Companies Unite to Shape Ophthalmology Market

Zeiss secures regulatory approvals to acquire d.o.r.c.; companies now shift focus to integration implementation, fueling world-class innovation, and driving market expansion strategy for ophthalmic medical devices and surgery..

Jena, Germany | April 4, 2024 | Carl Zeiss Meditec AG

Carl Zeiss Meditec AG announced today that, after securing all required regulatory approvals, it has completed the acquisition of 100% of D.O.R.C. (Dutch Ophthalmic Research Center) from the investment firm Eurazeo SE, Paris, France. The acquisition enhances and complements ZEISS Medical Technology’s broad ophthalmic portfolio and range of digitally connected workflow solutions for addressing a wide variety of eye conditions, spanning retina and cornea disorders, cataract, glaucoma, and refractive errors.

“Together we are better. Today holds significant importance for us as we bring our teams together and turn our collective attention toward delivering breakthrough innovations and solutions for our customers. We are very excited to welcome D.O.R.C.’s team members to our ZEISS family and to begin integrating our products and practices as we work toward a brighter future together,” says Dr. Markus Weber, President and CEO of Carl Zeiss Meditec AG.

“Together we can offer an unmatched portfolio of advanced technologies and digital workflows. With D.O.R.C., we have an incredible opportunity to serve ophthalmologists around the world with more complete workflows and solutions than ever before,” says Euan S. Thomson, Ph.D., President of Ophthalmology and Head of the Digital Business Unit for ZEISS Medical Technology. “We’ve set our sights high to become the top player in the world for ophthalmology by leveraging our workflow solutions, enhancing our portfolio offerings and market position in the anterior surgery segment, and by significantly expanding our presence in the posterior surgery segment.”

“Together we are stronger. With four decades behind our amazing business and surgeon-inspired innovation, we look forward to writing the next chapter of our success story together with ZEISS Medical Technology,” says Pierre Billardon, CEO of D.O.R.C. “By joining forces, we can extend our reach, scale our efforts, and accelerate ophthalmic surgery advancements for more surgeons faster than before. I am filled with a great sense of pride and gratitude for every D.O.R.C. team member. Together, we have achieved so much to arrive at this pivotal moment in our journey. And together with ZEISS, we have so much more to accomplish in our bright future ahead to help patients see again.”

Combination of portfolios will create unmatched end-to-end solution within the digitally-connected ZEISS Retina Surgery Workflow

As a leading player in the retina surgical devices and consumables market, D.O.R.C.’s contributions will be critical to ZEISS Medical Technology’s long-term strategy and success going forward. With D.O.R.C., ZEISS is in a unique position to offer an unmatched portfolio of market-leading technologies to ophthalmologists, including an expanded, digitally-connected Retina Surgery Workflow from ZEISS. The companies’ portfolios are highly complementary and the powerful combination of the EVA NEXUS® platform from D.O.R.C. with ZEISS’s extensive range of visualization, diagnostic and therapeutic devices, and surgical instruments and consumables, all connected to a digital ecosystem, will enable the creation of efficient clinical workflows that will reshape the ophthalmology market for the benefit of surgeons and their patients alike.

D.O.R.C. brings to the acquisition one of the market’s most advanced dual-function systems - the EVA NEXUS platform. EVA NEXUS is the core of a strong portfolio, comprising a full range of accessories, instruments and liquids, offering one of the best-in-class solutions across vitreo-retinal (VR) and combined cataract procedures. The expansion that D.O.R.C.’s overall portfolio brings to ZEISS ensures that surgeons will have more options to choose the solutions that best meet their specific surgical requirements and preferences.

With the completion of this acquisition, health care professionals can expect to benefit from an extensive and unique combination of digitally connected devices and workflow solutions, from clinical pre-operative needs to the surgical operating room. This supports efficient clinical workflows and helps surgeons to improve outcomes for their patients. The two companies’ immediate priorities span maintaining business continuity and customer satisfaction, cultivating areas of deep expertise, and enhancing the value of their solutions and services for current and future customers.

Not all products, services or offers are approved or offered in every market and approved labeling and instructions may vary from one country to another. For country-specific product information, see the appropriate country website. Product specifications are subject to change in design and scope of delivery as a result of ongoing technical development.

Head of Group Finance and Investor Relations Carl Zeiss Meditec AG

• +49 3641 220-116
• Download vCard

Head of Global Communications Ophthalmology Carl Zeiss Meditec AG

• +1 925 487 3036

About Carl Zeiss Meditec AG

Carl Zeiss Meditec AG (ISIN: DE0005313704), which is listed on the MDAX and TecDAX of the German stock exchange, is one of the world's leading medical technology companies. The Company supplies innovative technologies and application-oriented solutions designed to help doctors improve the quality of life of their patients. The Company offers complete solutions, including implants and consumables, to diagnose and treat eye diseases. The Company creates innovative visualization solutions in the field of microsurgery. With approximately 4,823 employees worldwide, the Group generated revenue of €2,089.3m in fiscal year 2022/23 (to 30 September).

The Group’s head office is located in Jena, Germany, and it has subsidiaries in Germany and abroad; more than 50 percent of its employees are based in the USA, Japan, Spain and France. The Center for Application and Research (CARIn) in Bangalore, India and the Carl Zeiss Innovations Center for Research and Development in Shanghai, China, strengthen the Company's presence in these rapidly developing economies. Around 41 percent of Carl Zeiss Meditec AG’s shares are in free float. The remaining approx. 59 percent are held by Carl Zeiss AG, one of the world’s leading groups in the optical and optoelectronic industries.

For more information visit our website at www.zeiss.com/med

About D.O.R.C. Dutch Ophthalmic Research Center (International) B.V.

D.O.R.C. is one of the world’s leading suppliers of equipment, instruments, and liquids for ophthalmic surgery. For 40 years, D.O.R.C. has grown into a successful international business, shaping its product portfolio through close collaboration with leading top surgeons. The company improves eye surgery globally and maximizes surgeon control by providing innovative quality approaches for eye disorders. Its products are exported to more than 80 countries worldwide. The company is headquartered in Zuidland, the Netherlands, and has more than 800 employees.

Further articles

Publication of a Related Party Transaction pursuant to Article 111c of the AktG with the aim of European distribution

Press portal.

Get all press releases of the  Carl Zeiss Meditec AG here:

We've detected unusual activity from your computer network

To continue, please click the box below to let us know you're not a robot.

Why did this happen?

Please make sure your browser supports JavaScript and cookies and that you are not blocking them from loading. For more information you can review our Terms of Service and Cookie Policy .

For inquiries related to this message please contact our support team and provide the reference ID below.

The S&P 500 will soar another 26% by the end of next year as the Fed cuts rates more than expected, research firm says

• Stocks will rally higher through the end of next year, according to Capital Economics.
• Any ongoing stock bubble is nowhere near levels seen in 1929 and 2000, suggesting further upside ahead.
• Meanwhile, the Fed could cut rates more than investors are anticipating, the firm said in a recent note.

The S&P 500 will keep soaring until at least 2026, as the rally in stocks doesn't look over and the Fed is poised to slash interest rates way more than expected, according to Capital Economics.

Economists at the research firm predicted the S&P 500 would soar to 6,500 by the end of 2025, implying a 26% increase from its current levels.

That's contrary to what more bearish commentators have said, with some market gurus warning of an imminent stock correction as the S&P 500 mirrors other historic bubbles.

But stocks just don't look as overvalued as they have in previous periods , Capital Economics said. Shiller's S&P 500 Excess CAPE yield, which shows the valuation of stocks relative to bonds, still isn't at levels seen during the 1929 and dot-com bubble , a sign that stocks could rise "quite a lot more."

"We expect 'risky' assets, especially equities, to continue to outperform 'safe' ones over the next couple of years, as a bubble continues to inflate in the stock market," economists said in a note on Thursday. 

The Fed, meanwhile, is expected to cut interest rates soon — and cuts will likely run a lot deeper than markets are expecting , the firm said. The Fed could issue its first rate cut in June , and end up cutting interest rates 200 basis points by mid-2025, the firm estimated, more than what markets have already priced in.

"With the economy holding up well, there is a risk that they stand pat until July. That said, we are still expecting more rate cuts than investors do," economists added. 

Markets have been waiting for rate cuts for more than a year, as lower interest rates loosen financial conditions and can boost risk assets like stocks. Fed officials have projected 75 basis points of rate cuts in 2024. Investors, meanwhile, are pricing in a 65% chance the first cut could come by June, according to the CME FedWatch tool . 

• Main content

• Real Estate

Real estate market in Russia - statistics & facts

Residential real estate, office market in moscow, investment in real estate, key insights.

Detailed statistics

Annual mortgage loan interest rate in Russia 2016-2021

Leading banks by volume of issued mortgages Russia in 2020

Value of foreign direct investment to the real estate sector in Russia 2010-2021

Editor’s Picks Current statistics on this topic

Current statistics on this topic.

Mortgages & Financing

Residential Real Estate

Average primary housing prices in Russia 2020-2022, by major city

Quarterly residential property prices in Russia 2000-2023, by market

Related topics

Recommended.

• Real estate in Hungary
• Real estate market in the UK
• Real estate market in Germany
• Real estate market in Europe

Recommended statistics

• Premium Statistic Commercial real estate market size in Europe 2023, by country
• Premium Statistic Price-to-rent ratio in selected countries globally 2023
• Premium Statistic Fastest growing housing markets worldwide 2023
• Premium Statistic Office rent growth rates in selected cities 2021
• Premium Statistic Luxury real estate price change worldwide 2022, by city

Commercial real estate market size in Europe 2023, by country

Value of commercial real estate market in Europe in 2023, by country (in billion U.S. dollars)

Price-to-rent ratio in selected countries globally 2023

House-price-to-rent ratio in selected countries worldwide as of 1st quarter 2023

Fastest growing housing markets worldwide 2023

Annual price growth in selected residential real estate markets worldwide in 2nd quarter 2023

Office rent growth rates in selected cities 2021

Rental growth rates of office space in selected cities worldwide from 2018 to 2021

Luxury real estate price change worldwide 2022, by city

Luxury real estate price change in selected cities worldwide in 2022

• Premium Statistic Share of housing stock owned by population in Russia 2015-2022
• Premium Statistic Per capita living space in Russia 2005-2022
• Premium Statistic Quarterly residential property prices in Russia 2000-2023, by market
• Premium Statistic Average primary housing prices in Russia 2020-2022, by major city
• Premium Statistic Cities with the highest housing selling price in Russia 2022
• Premium Statistic Cities with the highest apartment rental price in Russia 2022
• Premium Statistic Housing price in the most expensive districts of Moscow 2022

Share of housing stock owned by population in Russia 2015-2022

Share of housing stock owned by the population in Russia from 2015 to 2022

Per capita living space in Russia 2005-2022

Area of residential buildings per capita in Russia from 2005 to 2022 (in square meters)

Average square meter price of residential real estate in Russia from 1st quarter 2000 to 2nd quarter 2023, by type of market (in Russian rubles)

Average prices in the primary housing market of major Russian cities in August 2020 and August 2022 (in 1,000 Russian rubles per square meter)

Cities with the highest housing selling price in Russia 2022

Cities with the highest average selling price for residential real estate in Russia in May 2022 (in Russian rubles per square meter)

Cities with the highest apartment rental price in Russia 2022

Cities with the highest average rental price for residential real estate in Russia in May 2022 (in Russian rubles per square meter)

Housing price in the most expensive districts of Moscow 2022

Most expensive districts by residential housing price in Moscow, Russia as of July 2022 (in Russian rubles per square meter)

Commercial real estate

• Premium Statistic Street retail property area of brands that left Russia 2022, by industry
• Premium Statistic Total office stock distribution in Moscow 2021, by class
• Premium Statistic Office vacancy rate in Moscow 2007-2022
• Premium Statistic Take-up of office real estate in Moscow 2016-2022
• Premium Statistic Coworking space rent in Moscow 2022, by district
• Premium Statistic Prime office rental prices in Moscow 2020-2022
• Premium Statistic Total density of shopping centers in Moscow Q1 2021, by district
• Premium Statistic Shopping center vacancy rate in Moscow 2010-2023
• Premium Statistic Shopping center vacancy rate in Saint Petersburg 2016-2022

Street retail property area of brands that left Russia 2022, by industry

Distribution of street retail property area of foreign brands that left Russia in 1st half 2022, by industry

Total office stock distribution in Moscow 2021, by class

Total office stock breakdown in Moscow (Russia) as of the 1st half of 2021, by class

Office vacancy rate in Moscow 2007-2022

Commercial office real estate vacancy rate in Moscow, Russia, from 2007 to 2022

Take-up of office real estate in Moscow 2016-2022

Commercial office real estate take-up in Moscow, Russia, from 2016 to 2022 (in 1,000 square meters)

Coworking space rent in Moscow 2022, by district

Monthly rent for a workplace in coworking spaces in Moscow in August 2022, by major district (in Russian rubles)

Prime office rental prices in Moscow 2020-2022

Average prime rent of office properties in Moscow from 1st half 2020 to 1st half 2022 (in Russian rubles per square meter per year)

Total density of shopping centers in Moscow Q1 2021, by district

Total density of shopping centers in Moscow (Russia) as of the 1st quarter 2021, by district (in square meters per 1,000 inhabitants)

Shopping center vacancy rate in Moscow 2010-2023

Vacancy rate in shopping centers in Moscow, Russia, from 2010 to 2022 with a forecast for 2023

Shopping center vacancy rate in Saint Petersburg 2016-2022

Vacancy rate in shopping centers in Saint Petersburg, Russia, from 2016 to 2022

Industrial real estate

• Premium Statistic Class A warehouse vacancy rate in Moscow 2011-2022
• Premium Statistic Rental rate of A class warehouses in Moscow 2013-2022
• Premium Statistic Share of take-up of warehouses in Moscow, Russia H1 2022, by industry
• Premium Statistic Industrial warehouse vacancy rate in Russia 2019-2022, by major city
• Premium Statistic Average new self-storage unit size in Moscow 2016-2022

Class A warehouse vacancy rate in Moscow 2011-2022

Vacancy rate of class A warehouse properties in Moscow, Russia, from 2011 to 2022

Rental rate of A class warehouses in Moscow 2013-2022

Rental rate of A class warehouses in Moscow, Russia, from 2013 to 2022 (in Russian rubles per square meter)

Share of take-up of warehouses in Moscow, Russia H1 2022, by industry

Distribution of industrial warehousing take-up in Moscow, Russia, in 1st half 2022, by industry

Industrial warehouse vacancy rate in Russia 2019-2022, by major city

Vacancy rate of industrial warehouses in Moscow and Saint Petersburg from 1st half 2019 to 1st half 2022

Average new self-storage unit size in Moscow 2016-2022

Average size of newly opened self-storage facilities in Moscow from 2016 to 1st half 2022 (in square meters)

• Premium Statistic Value of foreign direct investment to the real estate sector in Russia 2010-2021
• Premium Statistic Share of investment volume for the real estate market Russia 2021, by region
• Premium Statistic Breakdown of investment volume in real estate Moscow 2019-2021, by sector
• Premium Statistic Investment volume in warehouse property in Russia 2006-2022
• Premium Statistic Volume of investment in office property in Russia 2006-2022
• Premium Statistic Volume of investment in retail property in Russia 2006-2022
• Premium Statistic Commercial real estate investment in Russia 2009-2023
• Premium Statistic Commercial real estate investment share in Russia H1 2022, by segment
• Premium Statistic Industrial park investment in Russia 2021, by sector and type

Total value of foreign direct investment (FDI) to the real estate sector in Russia from 2010 to 2021 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Share of investment volume for the real estate market Russia 2021, by region

Breakdown of investment volume for the real estate market in Russia from the 1st quarter to the 3rd quarter 2021, by region

Breakdown of investment volume in real estate Moscow 2019-2021, by sector

Breakdown of investment volume in real estate in Moscow (Russia) from 2019 to the 3rd quarter 2021, by sector

Investment volume in warehouse property in Russia 2006-2022

Annual investment volume in warehouse real estate in Russia from 2006 to the 3rd quarter of 2022 (in billion Russian rubles)

Volume of investment in office property in Russia 2006-2022

Annual investment volume in office real estate in Russia from 2006 to the 3rd quarter of 2022 (in billion Russian rubles)

Volume of investment in retail property in Russia 2006-2022

Annual investment volume in retail real estate in Russia from 2006 to the 3rd quarter of 2022 (in billion Russian rubles)

Commercial real estate investment in Russia 2009-2023

Investment in commercial real estate in Russia from 2009 to 1st quarter 2023 (in billion Russian rubles)

Commercial real estate investment share in Russia H1 2022, by segment

Distribution of investment in the commercial real estate in Russia in 1st half 2022, by segment

Industrial park investment in Russia 2021, by sector and type

Investment in Greenfield and Brownfield industrial parks in Russia in 2021, by sector (in billion Russian rubles)

• Premium Statistic Mortgage loan interest rate in Russia monthly 2019-2023
• Premium Statistic Annual value of mortgage loans in Russia 2015-2021
• Premium Statistic Value of loans granted for real estate activities in Russia 2010-2023
• Premium Statistic Mortgage loan annual growth rate in Russia 2012-2021
• Premium Statistic Annual mortgage loan interest rate in Russia 2016-2021
• Premium Statistic Overdue mortgage credit share in Russia 2015-2024
• Premium Statistic Leading Russian regions by mortgage loan volume in 2022

Mortgage loan interest rate in Russia monthly 2019-2023

Average weighted mortgage loan interest rate in Russia from January 2019 to September 2023

Annual value of mortgage loans in Russia 2015-2021

Annual value of mortgage loans issued in Russia from 2015 to 2021 (in trillion Russian rubles)

Value of loans granted for real estate activities in Russia 2010-2023

Total value of loans granted in the real estate activities sector in Russia from January 2010 to January 2023 (in billion Russian rubles)

Mortgage loan annual growth rate in Russia 2012-2021

Year-over-year mortgage loans volume growth in Russia from 2012 to 2021

Average weighted mortgage loan interest rate in Russia from 2016 to 2021

Overdue mortgage credit share in Russia 2015-2024

Share of overdue loans in the mortgage portfolio in Russia from 2015 to 2024

Leading Russian regions by mortgage loan volume in 2022

Leading regions by mortgage loan volume in Russia as of May 2022 (in billion Russian rubles)

Further reports Get the best reports to understand your industry

Get the best reports to understand your industry.

• Real estate investments on the European market
• Real estate in Italy
• Residential real estate in Europe
• Real estate market in Poland

Mon - Fri, 9am - 6pm (EST)

Mon - Fri, 9am - 5pm (SGT)

Mon - Fri, 10:00am - 6:00pm (JST)

Mon - Fri, 9:30am - 5pm (GMT)

We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. This includes personalizing content and advertising. To learn more, click here . By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies, revised Privacy Policy and Terms of Service .

New to Zacks? Get started here.

Member Sign In

Don't Know Your Password?

• Zacks #1 Rank
• Zacks Industry Rank
• Zacks Sector Rank
• Equity Research
• Mutual Funds
• Mutual Fund Screener
• ETF Screener
• Earnings Calendar
• Earnings Releases
• Earnings ESP
• Earnings ESP Filter
• Stock Screener
• Premium Screens
• Basic Screens
• Research Wizard
• Personal Finance
• Money Managing
• Real Estate
• Retirement Planning
• Tax Information
• My Portfolio
• Create Portfolio
• Style Scores
• Testimonials
• Zacks.com Tutorial

Services Overview

• Zacks Ultimate
• Zacks Investor Collection
• Zacks Premium

Investor Services

• ETF Investor
• Home Run Investor
• Income Investor
• Stocks Under $10
• Value Investor
• Top 10 Stocks

Other Services

• Method for Trading
• Zacks Confidential

Trading Services

• Black Box Trader
• Counterstrike
• Headline Trader
• Insider Trader
• Large-Cap Trader
• Options Trader
• Short Sell List
• Surprise Trader
• Alternative Energy

You are being directed to ZacksTrade, a division of LBMZ Securities and licensed broker-dealer. ZacksTrade and Zacks.com are separate companies. The web link between the two companies is not a solicitation or offer to invest in a particular security or type of security. ZacksTrade does not endorse or adopt any particular investment strategy, any analyst opinion/rating/report or any approach to evaluating individual securities.

If you wish to go to ZacksTrade, click OK . If you do not, click Cancel.

Image: Bigstock

3 Refining & Marketing Stocks That Could be Huge Winners in 2024

Moving forward, the Zacks Oil and Gas - Refining & Marketing industry will continue to be bolstered by the tight equilibrium between supply and demand for products. Despite the establishment of new refineries, global demand growth is set to outpace the production of refined products. The global refining capacity, inclusive of new installations, and demand for refined products, remain finely balanced. Given this favorable market environment, downstream firms such as Valero Energy ( VLO Quick Quote VLO - Free Report ) , Murphy USA ( MUSA Quick Quote MUSA - Free Report ) and PBF Energy ( PBF Quick Quote PBF - Free Report ) are poised to sustain robust earnings and generate substantial long-term value for shareholders.

Industry Overview

The Zacks Oil and Gas - Refining & Marketing industry consists of companies involved in selling refined petroleum products (including heating oil, gasoline, jet fuel, residual oil, etc.) and a plethora of non-energy materials (like asphalt, road salt, clay and gypsum). Some companies also operate refined products’ terminals, storage facilities and transportation services. The primary activity of these firms involves buying crude/other feedstocks, and processing them into a wide variety of refined products. Refining margins are extremely volatile and generally reflect the state of petroleum product inventories, demand for refined products, imports, regional differences, and capacity utilization in the refining industry. Other major determinants of refining profitability are the light/heavy and sweet/sour spreads. Refiners are also prone to unplanned outages.

3 Trends Defining the Oil and Gas - Refining & Marketing Industry's Future

Healthy Refining Margins Promise Robust Earnings: Despite easing from the remarkable highs of 2022, refining margins are still at healthy levels. Crack spreads, indicating the difference between refined product prices and crude oil, remain comfortably above historical benchmarks even as they revert to more typical ranges. These spreads, crucial for driving profits in oil and gas refining and marketing, augur well for downstream operators, ensuring robust profitability amid normalization. Looking at the refining landscape, global oil demand reached a peak in 2023, with expectations pointing to another record year in 2024. The IEA forecasts demand growth of around 1.3 million barrels per day. Demand for gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel remains steady year over year, both domestically and in exports. Global supply constraints persist, with expected capacity expansions progressing slower than anticipated. Looking ahead to 2024, above-average turnaround activity in the first quarter and the shift to summer gasoline blends are expected to bolster refining margins.      Strong Product Consumption Trends Signal Growth Ahead: In recent times, refiners have received a boost from the robust consumption of their products, particularly gasoline and diesel, propelled by a resurgence in travel and mobility. The latest data from the U.S. Energy Department indicates that gasoline inventories are approximately 3% below the five-year average, while distillate stocks are 7% lower, signaling robust utilization of oil products in the market. In essence, this underscores the significant usage of gasoline, diesel, and other refined products. With economic activity maintaining its resilience and Americans embracing travel as part of the post-pandemic revival, the consumption of refined products is anticipated to continue gaining momentum throughout 2024. Refiners stand to benefit from increased driving activity and the accelerating trend of international travel. Challenges Affecting the Energy Industry's Supply Chain: Amid a generally optimistic energy outlook and improved demand conditions, the industry has not escaped disruptions in the supply chain and rising costs. Widespread challenges such as heightened transportation expenses, driver shortages, and labor scarcities have hindered refiners' ability to deliver volumes to their customers. Moreover, the industry is contending with the effects of inflation, which are impacting the overall cost framework. Adding to the complexity is the ongoing struggle to pass on these increased costs to customers, leading to sustained profitability challenges in the foreseeable future.

Zacks Industry Rank Indicates Positive Outlook

The Zacks Oil and Gas - Refining & Marketing is a 15-stock group within the broader Zacks Oil - Energy sector. The industry currently carries a Zacks Industry Rank #65, which places it in the top 26% of more than 250 Zacks industries. The group’s Zacks Industry Rank , which is basically the average of the Zacks Rank of all the member stocks, indicates solid near-term prospects. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperforms the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1. Considering the encouraging dynamics of the industry, we will present a few stocks that you may want to consider for your portfolio. But it’s worth taking a look at the industry’s shareholder returns and current valuation first.

Industry Outperforms Sector But Lags S&P 500

The Zacks Oil and Gas - Refining & Marketing industry has fared better than the broader Zacks Oil – Energy sector over the past year but has underperformed the Zacks S&P 500 composite over the same period. The industry has gone up 26.2% over this period compared with the broader sector’s increase of 12.8%. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 has gained 27%.

One-Year Price Performance

Industry's Current Valuation

Since oil and gas companies are debt-laden, it makes sense to value them based on the EV/EBITDA (Enterprise Value/ Earnings before Interest Tax Depreciation and Amortization) ratio. This is because the valuation metric takes into account not just equity but also the level of debt. For capital-intensive companies, EV/EBITDA is a better valuation metric because it is not influenced by changing capital structures and ignores the effect of noncash expenses. On the basis of the trailing 12-month enterprise value-to EBITDA (EV/EBITDA), the industry is currently trading at 4.03X, significantly lower than the S&P 500’s 15.03X. It is also below the sector’s trailing 12-month EV/EBITDA of 4.40X. Over the past five years, the industry has traded as high as 6.76X, as low as 1.84X, with a median of 3.75X, as the chart below shows.

Trailing 12-Month Enterprise Value-to EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) Ratio (Past Five Years)

3 Stocks to Buy

Murphy USA: It is a leading independent retailer of motor fuel and convenience merchandise in the United States. The proximity of Murphy USA’s fuel stations to Walmart supercenters helps the company leverage the strong and consistent traffic that these stores attract. MUSA’s acquisition of QuickChek Corporation — a family-owned food and beverage chain — is expected to help improve its offerings. Over the past 60 days, El Dorado, AR-based Murphy USA has seen the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2024 improve 6.7%. MUSA beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings in three of the trailing four quarters and missed in the other, the average being 13.6%. The company carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Shares of MUSA have gained 63.2% in a year. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here .

Price and Consensus: MUSA

Valero Energy: San Antonio, TX-based Valero Energy is the largest independent refiner and marketer of petroleum products in the United States. The company has a refining capacity of 3.1 million barrels per day across 15 refineries located throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. VLO’s expected EPS growth rate for three to five years is currently 6%, which compares favorably with the industry's growth rate of 5.6%. Valero Energy beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings in each of the trailing four quarters, the average being 10.7%. Shares of the Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company have gained 35.7% in a year.

Price and Consensus: VLO

PBF Energy: PBF Energy has one of the most complex refining systems in the United States. As a result, the firm has the capacity to generate lighter and better grades of refined products. PBF’s daily processing capacity of 1,000,000 barrels of crude is higher than most of its peers. PBF, based in Parsippany, NJ, beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings in three of the last four quarters. Over the past 60 days, this firm saw the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2024 move up 8.4%. The Zacks Rank #2 PBF’s shares have gained 48.5% in a year.

Price and Consensus: PBF

See More Zacks Research for These Tickers

Normally $25 each - click below to receive one report free:.

Valero Energy Corporation (VLO) - free report >>

Murphy USA Inc. (MUSA) - free report >>

PBF Energy Inc. (PBF) - free report >>

Published in

This file is used for Yahoo remarketing pixel add

Due to inactivity, you will be signed out in approximately: