Predictifying market research

Mashable is reporting that group prediction site, Predictify, officially launched its public beta today. Predictify is a so-called “prediction platform that taps into the collective wisdom of Internet users” to make predictions on various questions, events or outcomes, such as who will be the Republican presidential nominee, the Red Sox’s chances of winning the World Series, or what might be the next Apple iPod incarnation.

Members can make predictions or post their own questions freely. And those who make accurate predictions on “premium” (i.e. paid for) questions can earn money for their foresight, depending on how much value the poster put on his/her question. The higher your accuracy is over time, the higher you move up the expert ranking scale.

Predictify maybe just be another interesting twist on using social networks to reap collective knowledge. But what’s more interesting to me is its potential as a low-cost market research tool. Using the premium question service could enable companies to conduct private surveys and garner statistical feedback that could prove to be valuable validation. They can get potentially a very large sampling (up to 10,000 responses) at a relatively low cost ($1 per response) … cheap compared to e-mail or phone surveys. And the data is richer, including predictor profile information such as age and gender.

Sure, there are other online survey alternatives, many of which are free. But have you ever tried to recruit a large enough sampling of willing participants to take the survey, without offering some kind of giveaway or other bribery? Predictify could be a valuable resource purely because it has a critical mass of eager predictors who want to foresee your future.