New York—Research providers are increasingly going global, as investors diversify and focus less on developed markets. New research firms are being established in regional markets to serve increasing demand for international research. The majority of alternative research firms are still U.S. based covering the North American markets, but coverage of non-US markets is growing, as are the number of alternative research providers located outside the U.S.
Geographic Coverage
Half of the research firms we follow cover North America, but non-US coverage is increasingly diverse. One-fifth of the firms we follow cover Europe and 13% cover the Asia Pacific region. 7% cover emerging markets, with 4% following Latin America and 3% covering the Middle East and Africa. The majority (80%) of the firms we follow are alternative research firms, with the remainder being investment banks. The coverage statistics reflect 963 firms for which we collect coverage statistics.
Location
Three quarters of the firms we track are based in North America (95% in the U.S.), which is down from 80% as of September. Partly this reflects new firms being established in Europe and Asia, and partly this reflects our own efforts to expand our non-US coverage. Of the 1,230 research firms for which we maintain location information, 16% are based in Europe (including emerging Europe), 4% in Asia, 3% in emerging markets and 1% in the Middle East and Africa.
