Research Now's New York office will sell survey data gained from its 700,000-strong European online panel to the US market.
The decision to have a US hub follows demand from the group's North American clients for access to quality European online panels.
Research Now launched an Irish-only research panel, Irish Opinions, last week and entered into the Australian market for the first time with a 600,000 strong panel in September.
To support the New York office, Research Now has appointed Scott Toro and Alex Sunnerstam as client service and sales directors.
Before joining Research Now, Toro was responsible for selling European research in the US for Ciao, prior to its acquisition by Greenfield Online. Sunnerstam joins from Quickwise, the UK online media research specialist, and was previously at Datamonitor.
Heading up the new US team will be Research Now managing director Andrew Cooper, who will be based in the London office.
Sadia Perveen, Research Now's client service manager previously responsible for growing US sales from the UK, will move from London to the New York office in the New Year.
Cooper said: "As US researchers are already very familiar with the concept of undertaking research online from within their domestic market, there is a growing demand for them to be able to access research online in Europe as well.
"Alongside this, we are also seeing a demand from clients for an alternative option to the two existing US providers, who have both recently acquired the owners of European online panels. We therefore feel that Research Now is well placed to benefit from having its own presence in the US".
In the US, online survey research has grown from constituting approximately 9% of the total US survey research market in 2000 to being an estimated 29% of the market today.
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