QFINANCE user survey

March 2010

“QFINANCE provides information I cannot find

elsewhere”

“QFINANCE is a comprehensive source of

financial information”

Executive SummaryThis report details findings from the QFINANCE online survey conducted in March

2010.The purpose of the survey was to establish the profile of QFINANCE users and

understand their financial information needs.

QFINANCE user profile

• More than two thirds of users are finance professionals

• A quarter of users are academics/students

• 40% of finance professionals work in Banks/Financial institutions

• 64% of users have completed a postgraduate qualification

Financial information needs of QFINANCE users

• QFINANCE achieves a higher score than Bloomberg or FT.com on the uniqueness of its content

• 97% of users are satisfied with QFINANCE.com

• QFINANCE is seen as a comprehensive source of information needs

Level of response

• Over 1,000 individuals filled in the survey. The industry standard for completion of online surveys is 500

• Users from over 100 countries filled in the survey

“QFINANCE provides a broad range of financial information”

Source: QFINANCE User Survey, March 2010

Research objectives

• Establish the profile of QFINANCE.com users

• Understand which online resources QFINANCE users use to obtain

information to help them perform in their jobs

• Assess what type of information on QFINANCE.com is of most value

to users

Methodology

• Online survey ran on the QFINANCE website from 10th to 31st

March 2010

• Email sent to QFINANCE registrants (1,540 individuals)

• A total of 1026 individuals responded to the survey & 721

completed the survey in full (70% completion rate)

Over 1,000 individuals responded to the QFINANCE survey. Industry standard

for the sample size from online surveys is 500.

Profile of QFINANCE users

• 72% of QFINANCE users are finance professionals.

• 39% of these users performing an senior management role

• 26% of users are academics/students (the remaining 2% are

retired)

• 40% of finance professionals work in Banks/Financial institutions

• 60% of professionals work in commercial/industrial organisations

• 64% of users have completed a postgraduate qualification

• Individuals from over 100 countries filled in the survey

Source: QFINANCE User Survey, March 2010

More than two thirds of QFINANCE users are finance professionals.

QFINANCE users’ information needs

• 54% of users say that QFINANCE provides information that they

cannot get elsewhere

• 97% of users are satisfied with QFINANCE.com

• QFINANCE is seen as a comprehensive source of information

needs

• The majority of users utilise a number of financial websites to help

them perform in their jobs

Source: QFINANCE User Survey, March 2010

QFINANCE achieves a higher score than Bloomberg or FT.com on the

uniqueness of its content.

How often do you visit financial information websites?

Source: QFINANCE User Survey, March 2010

41% of respondents say they visit QFINANCE at least once a week or more.

Several Times a DayOnce a

DayOnce a Week

Once a Month

Less than Once a Month

Have not Visited

Bloomberg.com 21% 13% 19% 10% 12% 25%

CFO.com 5% 7% 14% 9% 12% 53%

CNBC.com 11% 14% 18% 8% 14% 35%

EFinancialnews.com 6% 8% 12% 9% 10% 55%

Economist.com 9% 15% 27% 14% 13% 23%

Euromoney.com 5% 7% 15% 9% 11% 54%

FT.com 19% 19% 17% 9% 8% 28%

Forbes.com 7% 10% 20% 13% 17% 34%

QFINANCE.com 7% 9% 25% 15% 15% 29%

Reuters.com 14% 15% 16% 11% 12% 32%

WSJ.com 13% 16% 11% 9% 10% 41%

For each of these websites please indicate if it is...

Source: QFINANCE User Survey, March 2010

43% of respondents say QFINANCE provides insight they cannot get elsewhere (a

higher percentage compared to FT.com or Bloomberg.com).

Is InfluentialProvides Insight I Cannot Get

ElsewhereIs One I Specifically Make

Time For

Bloomberg.com 49% 27% 25%

CNBC.com 47% 27% 27%

EFinancialnews.com 41% 33% 27%

Economist.com 32% 35% 33%

Euromoney.com 44% 25% 31%

FT.com 41% 32% 27%

Forbes.com 40% 32% 28%

QFINANCE.com 33% 43% 24%

Reuters.com 44% 28% 28%

WSJ.com 43% 26% 31%

Please indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree

with the following statements about QFINANCE.com

Source: QFINANCE User Survey, March 2010

54% of respondents say QFINANCE provides them information they cannot find

elsewhere.

Agree Strongly Agree Somewhat Neither Agree nor Disagree Disagree

The information on the QFINANCE website is clear 40% 39% 19% 2%

The information on the QFINANCE website is accurate 31% 41% 25% 2%

QFINANCE is a comprehensive source of financial information 30% 40% 26% 5%

QFINANCE provides information I cannot find elsewhere 19% 35% 37% 8%

The QFINANCE website is user-friendly 31% 42% 24% 4%

The QFINANCE website contains interesting information 36% 39% 21% 4%

QFINANCE provides a broad range of financial information 27% 46% 24% 4%

The information provided by QFINANCE is very detailed 18% 42% 33% 7%

QFINANCE provides information that is relevant to my work 28% 42% 25% 5%

Please rate the usefulness of the sectors covered by

QFINANCE to you at work

Source: QFINANCE User Survey, March 2010

Users like the broad range of financial information provided by QFINANCE.

Very Useful Quite Useful NeitherNot Very

UsefulNot at all

UsefulBalance Sheets and

Cashflow 36% 40% 16% 5% 4%

Financial Regulation and Compliance 37% 37% 18% 5% 3%

Funding and Investment 35% 38% 22% 4% 2%

Governance and Ethics 29% 38% 23% 6% 3%Mergers and Acquisitions 27% 36% 27% 8% 3%

Operations and Performance 28% 39% 23% 6% 4%

Research Data 32% 38% 22% 5% 3%

Dictionary 30% 36% 23% 7% 4%

Blogs 18% 29% 31% 13% 9%

Overall, how satisfied are you with the QFINANCE

website?

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Very Satisfied - 45 % Somewhat Satisfied - 35 % Extremely Satisfied - 17 % Not at all Satisfied - 2 % Not Very Satisfied - 1 %

Source: QFINANCE User Survey, March 2010

97% of respondents are satisfied with the QFINANCE website.

In which country are you based?

EMEA - 51%

US - 22%

ASIA - 27%

Source: QFINANCE User Survey, March 2010

In which geographical regions does the company for which

you work do business?

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Just the country in which I am based - 29 %

Worldwide - 23 % Asia / Pacific - 18 % Europe - 16 % North America - 9 % Latin America - 5 %

Source: QFINANCE User Survey, March 2010

What best describes your job title or position?

CEO / CFO/ MD / Chairman / President - 22%

Senior Management - 17%

Middle Management - 33%

Academics and Postgraduate Students - 26%

Retired - 2%

Source: QFINANCE User Survey, March 2010

39% of users are CEOs or Senior Managers; 33% are Middle Managers.

What are your main areas of responsibility?

Source: QFINANCE User Survey, March 2010

Finance / Treasury - 15 %

Commercial / Investment Banking - 8 %

Corporate / Strategic Planning - 7 %

Risk Management - 6 %

General Management - 7 %

Management Accounting / Accounts - 5 %

Asset/Fund Management, Compliance, IT, etc (bank or specialist financial institution) - 25 %

Intl Operations, HR, Legal, etc (commercial or industrial company) - 27 %

The breadth of content has attracted users from a wide variety of roles in

Banking/Financial Institutions & Commercial organisations.

What is the annual turnover of the organisation for which

you work?

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

< £100 million - 52 % £100 million < £1 billion - 21 % £10 billion or more - 11 % £1 billion < £5 billion - 10 % £5 billion < £10 billion - 6 %

Source: QFINANCE User Survey, March 2010

What is the highest level of education you have achieved?

MBA / EMBA - 29 %

University Degree - 29 %

MA / MSc / PhD / Dphil / DBA - 22 %

Other Post Graduate Qualification - 13 %

Below University Degree - 7 %

Source: QFINANCE User Survey, March 2010

QFINANCE users are well educated: 64% have a postgraduate qualification.

Which social networking websites do you use?

Source: QFINANCE User Survey, March 2010

% of respondents who use this site

Wikipedia 66%

Facebook 60%

YouTube 53%

LinkedIn 44%

Twitter 22%

Digg 4%

Other (incl Yahoo Finance, Google Finance) 11%

A high proportion of users utilise multiple social networking sites.

Conclusions

• QFINANCE is providing users with insight they cannot

get elsewhere

• QFINANCE is seen to offer a comprehensive source of

financial information and users visit the website on a

regular basis

• The breadth of financial information is liked by users

• The opportunity is there to develop awareness through

search engine marketing & drive this interest into new

and repeat users of QFINANCE.com so that the site

becomes the first point of call for financial information

Source: QFINANCE User Survey, March 2010

“QFINANCE provides information that is relevant to

my work”