Worldwide IT spending reached approximately $5.6 trillion in 2025 according to reports from Gartner. The 10.3% increase over spending in 2024 was fuelled by continue investment in AI infrastructure. The US and China remain the global leaders in technology innovation and investment, with the UK positioned as a major European hub.
The seven largest tech companies by revenue in Fortune’s Global 500 list for 2025 were Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Samsung Electronics, Hon Hai Precision Industry (Foxconn, the Taiwanese contract manufacturer), Meta Platforms and Nvidia, all of which had revenues in excess of $100 billion. Six of these companies also appear in the list of largest companies (of any kind) by market capitalisation, with TSMC (the Taiwanese semiconductor foundry) taking the place of Foxconn.
The UK’s technology sector is said to be the third largest in the world (after the USA and China), with a market valuation of $1.2 trillion in mid 2025. The UK has particular strengths in FinTech and cybersecurity.
Technology is a core industry for FieldworkHub and we have facilitated market research projects covering a diverse range of topics including embedded processors, smart homes and smart devices, virtual reality headsets, enterprise software, mobile apps, online advertising and public policy topics such as the regulation of social media.
Focus groups bring together a small number of participants for a moderated discussion, either in person or online. They are particularly useful for exploring consumer attitudes, evaluating new concepts and understanding how people react to and build on one another’s ideas.
In-depth interviews (IDIs) involve a one-to-one conversation between a researcher and a participant. They are well suited to exploring complex decisions, personal experiences and sensitive subjects, particularly in B2B research or when specialist knowledge is required.
Ethnographic research involves observing people in their everyday environments, such as their homes, workplaces or shops. It is useful when researchers want to understand how products and services are used in practice, rather than relying solely on what participants say.
Online bulletin boards (OBBs) allow participants to complete research tasks and respond to questions over several days, at times that suit them. They are useful for diary-style research, gathering detailed reflections and exploring topics that benefit from considered rather than immediate responses.
Market research online communities (MROCs) bring participants together on a digital platform for ongoing research. Unlike shorter OBB studies, MROCs can cover multiple topics over weeks or months, making them useful for user engagement, innovation and tracking changing attitudes.
UX testing involves observing people as they use a website, app or digital product, often while completing specific tasks. It helps identify usability problems, understand why users encounter difficulties and evaluate prototypes or existing digital experiences.
Customer experience research examines how people interact with a brand, product or service across touchpoints. It can combine interviews, surveys, focus groups and other methods to understand satisfaction, identify frustrations and explore opportunities to improve the customer journey.
Video surveys ask participants to record short responses to research questions, usually using their smartphones. They can involve selfie videos, product demonstrations or narrated activities, making them useful when researchers want to capture reactions and experiences in participants’ own words.
Vox pops involve short video interviews that capture people’s immediate opinions and reactions, usually in public locations or remotely. They are particularly useful for gathering spontaneous feedback on familiar topics, products or brands and illustrating research findings with real voices.
Online surveys allow respondents to complete structured questionnaires on their computers or mobile devices. They are often the most efficient option for reaching larger samples, testing preferences and measuring attitudes when respondents can be recruited and surveyed remotely.
Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) uses interviewers who follow a digital questionnaire and record responses during a telephone call. It is useful for reaching business professionals or other audiences who may be difficult to engage online, and for surveys with lots of open-ended questions.
Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) involves an interviewer recording responses on a tablet or similar device during an in-person survey. It is useful for street intercepts, location-specific research and research where participants need to see or try a product before answering questions.
For a global technology company, FieldworkHub recruited senior decision makers and C-level profiles from brand-name companes, advertising agencies and news publishers in the UK and Germany for online focus groups and IDIs about data privacy.
Our client wanted to hold focus group discussions with members of the public and opinion elites in Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy and Poland on their perceptions of the way that technology companies use artificial intelligence. This involved recruiting 240 respondents over a period of 5 weeks.
Our client was assisting a major online video streaming service which wanted to refine and test the way it communicated an important service change to subscribers. We recruited 12 recent subscribers and 12 tenured subscribers in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, South Korea and the UK.
We recruited a variety of smartphone users in Japan to understand how they use ‘focus mode’. We were asked to recruit mostly iPhone users and to include a number of students in the sample. Participants needed to be 18+, with an average daily screen time of 4+ hours.
A well-known audio streaming platform wanted to understand the audio consumption habits of members of Gen Z in 14 different countries. FieldworkHub was tasked with finding 30 participants in total who all spoke English and listened to some form of audio at least once per week on the client’s platform.
We were asked to recruit ten respondents in the UK and 30 in each of France and Germany to provide feedback on VR headsets made by a leading brand. The manufacturer wanted their views on both the products themselves and the way in which they were promoted through point-of-sale displays.
