June 03, 2008 - Survey Sampling International has opened a new office in Seoul, South Korea, headed up by newly appointed Simon (Quan) Zhang. The new Seoul office is the latest in a global expansion designed to keep SSI on a strong growth path in 2008, and further boost the region's existing marketing research activities and local online respondent community.

As one of the largest economies in Asia and the world, South Korea is enjoying rapid expansion, with Seoul acting as the hub for the region's market research activity. SSI's Seoul office is ideally situated for servicing existing and potential clients in Asia with sampling, programming and hosting, data processing and panel building solutions.

"Simon is the ideal candidate to be SSI's country manager for South Korea," said SSI Asia President JK Leong. "His background in marketing research, fluency in Chinese, Korean, and English, combined with local knowledge of the region and cultures will provide customers best-in-class service." Prior to joining SSI, Zhang worked for Tesco International Sourcing.

SSI also has Asia-Pacific regional offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Sydney, and Tokyo, with additional representatives in Guangzhou and Kuala Lumpur. To further support marketing research clients in Asia Pacific, SSI provides online access to respondents in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan through its managed communities. More than 70 countries are available through both SSI's managed partner and proprietary communities.

ESOMAR reports that the Korean market is expanding. Marketing research revenue in Korea reached $335 million in 2006, a net increase of 9.4% from 2005. In 2006, marketing research spend per capita was $6.89; advertising spend per capita was $120.37; and marketing research as a percentage of advertising spend was 5.7%.

"Internet penetration in South Korea is more than 66% of the population or 34 million Internet users," concluded Leong.

The Seoul office is located in Cheong Won Bldg 2F (number 213), 828-5 Yeoksam-Dong, Kangnam-Ku, Seoul, Korea. For direct contact, email info_kr@surveysampling.com.

Survey Sampling International

Survey Sampling International is the premier global provider of sampling solutions for survey research. SSI offers access to consumer and business-to-business respondents via Internet, telephone, and mobile. Additional services include survey programming and hosting, data processing, and sampling consultation. SSI serves more than 1,800 marketing research clients, including nearly three-quarters of the top researchers worldwide.

SSI provides access to more than 3.5 million research respondents in more than 70 countries via proprietary communities and managed affiliate relationships. Founded in 1977, SSI has an international staff of 335 people representing 50 countries and 36 languages. The company is based in Fairfield, Conn. with additional offices in London, Paris, Rotterdam, Stockholm, Frankfurt, Madrid, Beijing, Seoul, Shanghai, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, and La Quinta, Calif. For more information, visit www.surveysampling.com.