Celent estimates the spending on perception reached US$45 million in 2014, and will reach US$55 million in 2017. The CAGR will reach 6.9% during 2015–2017. The US and the UK markets are the most advanced, accounting for 40.5% and 15.7% of the market respectively in 2014.

In the report Perception Study Service Around the World, Celent examines the investor relationship market and profiles some leading vendors.

There are three types of investor relationship (IR) vendors: survey firms, shareholder service, and full service. The global survey firms include Corbin Perception, Ipreo, Rivel Research Group, Investor Perceptions, Quantifire, and RD:IR. Most of them are based in the US and the UK. Perception study service trends include internationalization, data visualization, and technology.

“One interesting service is the data visualization adopted by QuantiFire,” says Hua Zhang, analyst with Celent’s Asian Financial Services Group and author of the report. “IR data is cross-tabulated with feedback, and sentiment can be analyzed by different constituent groups.”