Prepared by Ilya Sabirov, CEO of the business production center SE.Capital, and the CEO of the performance-based (CPA, pay for results) marketing platform Ed.Partners.
A must-read for marketers, executives and owners. A selection of services that were relevant in 2026, with information on where your market is heading.
Before you start researching customers and competitors, you need to study the general market data that you will need later. DO NOT research a market without a specific question.
Examples of such specific questions:
- what is the market size in money;
- what is the market size in buyers or users;
- how many players are in it;
- is the market growing or shrinking, and at what pace;
- what customer segments does it have;
- what news and trends are in it;
- where is the market heading, and so on.
It is not marketers but entrepreneurs who will find it useful to know the answers to these questions: 10 ways to evaluate a promising market.
35+ resources for research
ISecondary data
“Secondaries,” “secondary data” or, even cooler, “secondary research.” This is data that people have already collected and published for you; all you have to do is use it.
- Plus: you save time, and your laziness rejoices.
- Minus: this data is almost never tailored to your particular business. You will need to run field research.
There are sooo many resources where you can look for information. To find what you need in them, you can:
- wade through these resources manually;
- subscribe to them and wait for the information you need;
- use Google advanced search, specifying these sites;
- or ignore these resources and try to find something through a search engine.
Consultancies and research houses
- PwC — it seems this place has everything you might need to find. Pay special attention to consumer markets. It is just as interesting to study what is going on in Russia.
- McKinsey — one of the coolest publications. It has all the information, appendices, global and local studies. Wow!
- Edelman — rich in work stories and insights.
- Nielsen — you can choose insights for practically any country. There is also a Russian version with insights.
- Deloitte — these people build wonderful reports. For example, “7 trends in building communication and growing brands in 2026”.
- Boston Consulting Group — a real treasure trove of useful information. What is good: both the global and the Russian versions have an email subscription, so you can stay on trend.
- Ipsos — a lot of useful materials in the English version. The Russian version has absolutely wonderful sections, “Innovation and Knowledge” and “News and Polls”.
Others, but no less important
- Facebook IQ
- Think With Google
- Google Public Data
- Ernst & Young
- The National Bureau of Economic Research
- HubSpot
- KPMG
- Euromonitor
- Global Web Index
And, in general, 70 other services.
IIServices
- Facebook Audience Insights — you can count an audience manually by interests and countries, see audience overlaps, and configure everything you want. A very useful tool for measuring the size of a market.
- Google Academy — helps you find academic papers on the topic you are looking for. Find a ready-made analysis!
- Google Trends — an analogue of Yandex Wordstat, but split by country. And with charts, too. For example, you can track how search queries related to the coronavirus have changed. There is also Social Mention, with roughly similar functionality.
- Google search with .pdf / .pptx / .key — just type the subject of your research into the search engine and add “filetype:pdf” / “filetype:pptx” / “filetype:key”. It helps you find nice reports on the topic. (Google)
IIIRussian sources
IVTrends
There is an opinion that you need to keep your eyes sharp and not miss trends, in order to stay afloat and always stay relevant. Here is an example of what can rethink your strategy and give you a pile of new ideas for development:
And here is a wonderful piece in defense of the thesis that it is very important for a business to follow trends:
- Trend Hunter — an excellent resource that collects every possible trend. Any kind, including marketing and design ones. Here are the trend reports, and here are the marketing strategies.
- Trend Watching — the people who promote meaningful innovation, helping brands discover powerful new answers to the question “What will my customers want next?”
- Muzli — this will not help your research. But it will definitely improve your taste. Muzli is a Chrome extension that shows incredibly cool design stories whenever you open a new tab. You look and get inspired.
VCompanies in your segment
And sometimes it is worth subscribing to the newsletters, social networks and blogs of companies in your segment. Very often you will find figures there that you will not find in broad daylight. Especially those obtained as a result of their own research.
VI2026 update: sources 36–48
Some time has passed since I wrote the piece “How to Research a Market for Free in 2026: 35 Authoritative Sources”. The article collected almost 15 thousand views and landed with readers right where it should.
However, after writing it I happened to use 13 more sources. So it is time to supplement the material.
But first, once again, the link to the first ones…
Follow the link, everything is laid out on shelves there: which sources, how to use them, how to look for information, how to organize it, and so on. There I tried to lay out 80% of all the search secrets I know.
36. HSE research
Amazingly, this really is a genuine bank of information:
- Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge
- Bank of professional research resources of the Higher School of Economics
- Monitoring studies
37. Accenture
The largest source of information, Accenture has been named a leader in innovation consulting. The source is so large and authoritative that the business itself once went public, and its shares are freely traded on the stock exchange. There are English and Russian versions.
38. Statista
The No. 1 business data platform in the world. Conclusions and facts from 170 industries and more than 150 countries. It has statistics, reports, infographics, outlooks, trends and so on. The site has extremely convenient navigation through the search bar. A wonderful service! (Statista)
39. Tinkoff Data
It is wonderful when a business becomes so large that it can publish reports based on its internal analytics. Tinkoff Data is one such example. Just take a look at what it publishes. Or at this one: spending by Muscovites since the July coronavirus restrictions. (Tinkoff Data)
40. Education trends
A good example of industry sources: studies, market reviews, methodological guides, event announcements and more.
If you, like me, work in EdTech, this Telegram channel is definitely for you.
41. FiveThirtyEight
This is a website that focuses on the analysis of public opinion polls and of political, economic and sports blogs. Mostly studies about the US and UK markets, sometimes the EU. (FiveThirtyEight)
42. Numbeo
Numbeo is the world’s largest cost-of-living database. The service is a global database with information on quality of life, including:
- housing indicators;
- perceived crime level and quality of healthcare;
as well as many other statistics.
The service is excellent for understanding where a business should go. For example, you can compare the indicators of Prague and Warsaw.
43. Teleport
A service similar to Numbeo. It lets you rate cities by quality of life, cost of living, salary and much more. It also gives you an understanding of where to place a business, based on your personal preferences.
Here, too, you can compare Prague with Warsaw.
44. Exploding Topics
Helps investors and entrepreneurs find explosive trends before they take off.
How it works: Exploding Topics analyzes millions of search queries, conversations and mentions on the internet, and its detection algorithm identifies industries, products and categories that are not being considered right now, months or years before they start to grow. (Exploding Topics)
45. RBC Trends
Not the most powerful source, especially globally. But still, you can find a lot about Russia in it. The service conducts its own research, and aggregates and publishes information. (RBC Trends)
46. Knoema
A global service from Perm that:
- offers to compare price forecasts for commodities from more than a dozen public sources;
- offers to learn about new market signals from alternative data;
- helps you understand the main drivers of supply and demand.
(Knoema)
47. Growth From Knowledge (GfK)
The resource lets you know what is happening, where and why, and what will happen next, so that you can make better-informed decisions for sustainable business growth. There are English and Russian versions.
48. EmerTrends
Identifies new trends almost immediately after they appear, lets you watch their growth, track and analyze the influence of the media, and study valuable key phrases using big data.
The resource is paid, but it has free reports.
VIIA bit of theory: a handy framework for research
The simplest method with which to study a market is Porter’s Five Forces. PEST analysis (also called STEP, which is the same thing), the one taught at university, has become outdated, while Porter’s Five Forces analysis (he is a scientist, not a beer) has held up very well since 2026. Here are Porter’s five forces:
- buyers
- suppliers
- existing competitors
- new competitors
- new substitute products
Analyzing each of Porter’s forces conveys the main idea: the less pressure you face from all sides, the more you will earn.
This analysis can be run with an express method (“Express analysis of Porter’s Five Forces”).
Or with a more complicated one (“Advanced analysis of Porter’s Five Forces”).
You can download the whole framework via this link.
It is important to understand: you can create ANY sheets and columns. This is just a framework; you can add whatever you consider necessary for you in particular.
PS: written by Ilya Sabirov for VC. Which sources did I not list?
#research #pwc #market_research #mckinsey #edelman #nielsen #deloitte #bcg #trends