NEW DELHI: Chief of Axis My India Pradeep Gupta told news agency PTI that conducting exit polls is not a profitable venture, and the only benefit pollsters gain is visibility.
Gupta said that media houses do not compensate pollsters sufficiently to cover the costs incurred during the polling process. He further added that 70 per cent of his clientele is corporate clients and that is where the main revenue comes from.
“Exit polls are a loss-making venture because no media house will pay as much money as that invested on the ground …the only profit that we make in exit polls is that we get visibility which we do not get while doing market research for corporate clients,” said Gupta.
Recently, pollster‘s reputation took a hit after their predictions were way off the mark during when the result of the Lok Sabha were declared on June 4.
“Besides the other investments we make on ground, every surveyor gets Rs 500 for a hitting the bull’s eye (for an accurate prediction) and we covered 3,605 assembly constituencies (in this election). There are other incentives too depending upon the accuracy of prediction. So, if all would have gone right, this money would have gone but its (company’s) brand equity would have been high, though it seems as a loss monetarily but its profit in terms of visibility,” said Gupta.
Additionally, Gupta announced plans to make his company public once its other businesses, currently in development, become profitable. ” We are working on few products which are ready to be rolled out. Once they are successful, we will go for a stock market listing,” said Gupta.
Gupta recently was accused by the opposition of intentionally predicting a landslide victory for the BJP to influence the stock market, which reached record highs following the exit poll announcements but crashed on the day of the results, June 4.
For the 2024 elections, Axis My India forecasted 361-401 seats for the BJP-led alliance and 131-166 seats for the opposition INDIA bloc in the 543-member Lok Sabha.
“Out of 64 crore voters, we spoke to 5.82 lakh voters, which is a representational sample size. We covered 3,607 assembly constituencies, over 22,000 villages. Our on-ground interviews are monitored by a team, there is no possibility of any manipulation or bias,” said Gupta.
Gupta said that media houses do not compensate pollsters sufficiently to cover the costs incurred during the polling process. He further added that 70 per cent of his clientele is corporate clients and that is where the main revenue comes from.
“Exit polls are a loss-making venture because no media house will pay as much money as that invested on the ground …the only profit that we make in exit polls is that we get visibility which we do not get while doing market research for corporate clients,” said Gupta.
Recently, pollster‘s reputation took a hit after their predictions were way off the mark during when the result of the Lok Sabha were declared on June 4.
“Besides the other investments we make on ground, every surveyor gets Rs 500 for a hitting the bull’s eye (for an accurate prediction) and we covered 3,605 assembly constituencies (in this election). There are other incentives too depending upon the accuracy of prediction. So, if all would have gone right, this money would have gone but its (company’s) brand equity would have been high, though it seems as a loss monetarily but its profit in terms of visibility,” said Gupta.
Additionally, Gupta announced plans to make his company public once its other businesses, currently in development, become profitable. ” We are working on few products which are ready to be rolled out. Once they are successful, we will go for a stock market listing,” said Gupta.
Gupta recently was accused by the opposition of intentionally predicting a landslide victory for the BJP to influence the stock market, which reached record highs following the exit poll announcements but crashed on the day of the results, June 4.
For the 2024 elections, Axis My India forecasted 361-401 seats for the BJP-led alliance and 131-166 seats for the opposition INDIA bloc in the 543-member Lok Sabha.
“Out of 64 crore voters, we spoke to 5.82 lakh voters, which is a representational sample size. We covered 3,607 assembly constituencies, over 22,000 villages. Our on-ground interviews are monitored by a team, there is no possibility of any manipulation or bias,” said Gupta.
