Monitas

What Monitas does

Monitas (株式会社モニタス) is a Tokyo-headquartered market research services firm founded in 1991 that operates Japan's largest consumer monitoring panel network — approximately 30 million registered monitors — and, since the August 2023 acquisition by MacroMill (TYO 3978, 57.8% ownership), participates in a combined group panel of roughly 36 million people. The company builds and sells four primary products: SuperColo, a SaaS platform that links enterprises' first-party customer data with survey-based consciousness data to drive loyalty and LTV improvement; millme, an AI-powered self-service research tool covering Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia with a proprietary MMSEA panel; Nobishiro, an ultra-fast quantitative survey service (co-operated with Novasell) delivering 100-1,000 respondent results in as little as 20 minutes; and the MONITORS panel alliance platform that enables companies to convert their own members into survey panelists.

Monitas monetizes through a mix of monthly SaaS subscriptions (SuperColo ¥300,000/month plus ¥300,000 one-time setup; millme ¥100,000/month subscription tier), per-survey transaction fees (Nobishiro), data-monetization via panel access licensing to platform partners (LINE Research Platform, Qualtrics XM, OPTICO, Minedia, MApps, Sharp COCORO MEMBERS, MoMo, V Point, Trima), and custom professional services for enterprise clients. The company serves a diversified base of 3,000+ Japanese enterprise customers across CPG (Asahi Beer), aviation (ANA X), financial services (Credit Saison), retail (Yamada Denki), electronics (Sharp), and sports (Renofa Yamaguchi FC), alongside a growing SMB and self-serve user base through millme and Nobishiro. Distribution spans direct enterprise sales in Japan, a self-service channel via millme.ai, OEM/API integrations with global and domestic platforms, and a Vietnam subsidiary (MONITAS VIETNAM CO., LTD, established September 2023) supporting Southeast Asian expansion.

Name

Monitas

Legal name

株式会社モニタス

Website

https://monitas.co.jp

Company type

Private

Founded year

1991

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Monitas operates Japan's largest consumer research panel (~30 million monitors) and sells SaaS-based market research tools (SuperColo, millme, Nobishiro) linking enterprise first-party data with consumer surveys, serving 3,000+ enterprise and SMB clients in Japan and Southeast Asia as a consolidated subsidiary of MacroMill.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Tokyo

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. SuperColo (スパコロ) SaaS Subscriptions: Monthly subscription SaaS service for customer monitoring and marketing DX. Companies pay a monthly fee to access the SuperColo platform for conducting surveys to their own customers, integrating with CDP, and analyzing consciousness data linked to 1st Party Data.
2. millme Subscription Plans: millme offers three tiers: Free (trend content access), On-Demand pay-per-use (fixed-cost zero, charged by usage), and Monthly ¥100,000 subscription for unlimited surveys. AI interviews are excluded from the monthly unlimited plan and charged separately.
3. Nobishiro Rapid Survey Service: Per-transaction fee for ultra-fast quantitative surveys. Companies pay per survey based on sample size (100, 500, or 1,000 respondents) with up to 10 questions per survey. Revenue is transaction-based per survey execution.
4. Monitor Panel Access / Panel Provision: Monitas provides access to its 2,800万人+ survey panel to partner platforms and direct clients. Revenue comes from panel access fees charged to survey buyers and integration partners (OPTICO, Mineds, MApps forSurvey, etc.).
5. LINE Research Platform Partnership: Monitas supports LINE Research Platform — a smartphone-based research platform with ~8.5 million active monitors. This partnership drives panel revenue through LINE's ecosystem of ~65 million LINE users in Japan.
6. Custom / Professional Services: Custom research design, on-site support from local staff in Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia), CDP integration consulting, and bespoke survey campaigns for enterprise clients. Billed as custom project engagements.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion5 records

Distribution channels8 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Monitas operates Japan's largest consumer panel network (30+ million monitors) and sells consumer research software and services to enterprise clients. Its core offerings are SuperColo, a SaaS platform that links enterprise 1st Party Data with survey-based consciousness data for customer understanding and LTV improvement, and millme, an AI-powered global research tool providing consumer insights in Southeast Asia (Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia). Supporting offerings include Nobishiro (ultra-fast quantitative survey service) and MONITORS (survey panel platform and member activation infrastructure).

Product overview

Monitas operates a multi-product portfolio centered on consumer panel-based marketing research and customer understanding. The core offerings are SuperColo (スパコロ), a customer understanding and LTV improvement SaaS that links enterprises' 1st Party Data with survey-based consciousness data, and millme (ミルミー), an AI-powered global research tool for Southeast Asian markets. These are supported by the MONITORS survey panel platform (~30 million panelists) and the Nobishiro ultra-fast quantitative survey service co-developed with Novasell. Monitas is a Macromill Group company headquartered in Tokyo, established in 1991.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• SuperColo (スパコロ): Customer understanding and LTV improvement platform that links a company's 1st Party Data with surveys to visualize customer 'insights'. Integrated into Monitas following the October 2023 merger with its former subsidiary 株式会社スパコロ.
• millme (ミルミー)

Products and services

• SuperColo (スパコロ) Customer understanding and LTV improvement SaaS platform that connects a company's 1st Party Data (behavioral data from CDPs, purchase history, app usage) with survey-based consciousness data. Enterprises link their own customer IDs to survey responses, enabling integrated behavioral and attitudinal analysis for loyalty marketing, One-to-One marketing, and customer experience optimization. Targets marketing executives, CRM managers, CDO/CDP teams, and product development leaders at large Japanese enterprises.
• millme (ミルミー) AI-powered self-service global research tool covering Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Combines AI-assisted survey design with the proprietary MMSEA (Marketing Monitor South East Asia) consumer panel and ListenLabs autonomous AI interviews. Enables rapid qualitative and quantitative research across multiple Southeast Asian countries simultaneously, breaking through language barriers and distance. Offers free trend content, On-Demand pay-per-use, and ¥100,000/month unlimited survey subscription tiers.
• Nobishiro (ノビシロ) Ultra-fast quantitative survey service co-operated with Novasell. Delivers 5-question surveys to 100 respondents in approximately 20 minutes, with 500-respondent and 1,000-respondent tiers also available. Supports video and image insertion within surveys. Enables quick hypothesis validation through a DIY survey platform, targeting mid-market companies and marketers needing agile consumer insights.
• MONITORS ( monitors / モニターズ)

Quantifiable outcome

• Ultra-fast 100-person qualitative research reduced from weeks to approximately 1 week using AI interviews (ListenLabs)
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration12 records

AI capability10 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

15 partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and minor.

• ListenLabs Inc. (リッスンラブ)coreTechnology or Integration · 27 May 2026Monitas integrated ListenLabs's autonomous AI interview platform with its MMSEA (Marketing Monitor South East Asia) panel to offer the first Japan-based overseas qualitative research solution combining ASEAN proprietary panels with AI-powered autonomous interviewing. The solution enables 100-person qualitative research in approximately 1 week (vs. traditional 4+ weeks), covering Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam in local languages with AI-generated follow-up questions.
• Online Mobile Services Joint Stock Company (MoMo / Mサービス)majorTechnology or Integration · 27 March 2025Monitas partnered with Vietnam's leading FinTech app MoMo (30+ million registered users, #1 payment share) to enable market research targeting MoMo's user base. Monitas conducted a 1,200-respondent survey on Japanese culture perception among Vietnamese consumers (MoMo users in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City), demonstrating the partnership's research capability for Japanese companies entering the Vietnamese market.
• Qualtrics LLC (クアルトリクス合同会社)coreTechnology or Integration · 5 March 2025Monitas's SuperColo integrates with Qualtrics XM Platform to provide sustainable experience data collection. SuperColo enables companies to create branded survey micro-pages within their apps/websites, with survey responses linked to customer IDs and stored within Qualtrics XM Platform. Additionally, Monitas's 28 million external monitors are accessible for market research through the Qualtrics ecosystem.
• Minedia Inc. (株式会社マインディア)majorTechnology or Integration · 17 July 2024Monitas provides 28 million monitors to Minedia's 'Mineds for Insight Data' — a qualitative insight data accumulation platform. The integration enables online depth interviews and group interviews with Monitas panel respondents, with interview footage, AI transcription, and analysis automatically stored in the Mineds platform. This lowers barriers to qualitative research and activates internal sharing of interview insights.
• JX Press Corporation (株式会社JX通信社)minorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 23 April 2024JX Press distributes the geo-targeted research service co-developed by Monitas and Geo Technologies through their 'JX Situation Survey' platform. JX Press uses the service to conduct electoral district-targeted public opinion surveys quickly and independently, demonstrating the service's speed and flexibility.
• OPTICO Inc. (株式会社OPTICO)majorTechnology or Integration · 26 March 2024Monitas provides 28 million monitors to OPTICO's 'Marketing Research DX Platform.' OPTICO connects marketers directly to Monitas's panel through a seamless API integration, eliminating intermediate processes in research operations. OPTICO provides research templates created by analysis experts and generates tailored outputs upon survey completion.
• CDP Vendors (various)majorTechnology or Integration · 9 November 2023SuperColo provides survey-to-CDP data integration for companies using Customer Data Platforms. By late 2023, SuperColo had over 2,500 customer self-monitoring implementations. CDP integration allows consciousness/survey data to be stored directly in company CDP systems, linked to customer IDs, enabling advanced ML-based customer journey analysis and new customer acquisition modeling.
• Hitachi Asia (Vietnam) — Suto Kazunori (日立アジア（ベトナム）)majorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 10 October 2023Monitas partnered with Mr. Suto Kazunori, former President of Hitachi Asia (Vietnam), to accelerate Monitas's business development in Vietnam and broader Southeast Asia. Mr. Suto brings 8 years of Vietnam operational experience and expertise in infrastructure, DX business expansion, and local market navigation to guide Monitas's ASEAN expansion strategy.
• Marketing Applications Inc. (株式会社マーケティングアプリケーションズ)majorTechnology or Integration · 18 April 2023Monitas integrated its 24 million monitors (as of 2023) into Marketing Applications' 'MApps forSurvey' platform and 'Servaloid' self-service survey tool. Post-integration, these platforms can reach approximately 600,000 respondents nationally — the largest survey environment in Japan. The partnership targets enterprise clients using MApps forSurvey for seamless panel access.
• Saison Card (クレディセゾン株式会社)majorTechnology or Integration · 9 March 2023Monitas provides SuperColo for Credit Saison's 'Saison Thanks Offer' program — a personalized campaign platform where card members receive gift offers based on their survey-derived hobby/preference profiles. Monitas supports Credit Saison's One-to-One marketing strategy by linking survey consciousness data with credit card transaction data through CDP integration.
• Novasell Inc. (ノバセル株式会社)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 3 February 2023Monitas co-operates the ultra-fast quantitative survey service 'Nobishiro' with Novasell. Novasell markets and resells Nobishiro as part of their TV CM advertising platform. Nobishiro enables 100-1,000 respondent surveys in as fast as 20 minutes, with video/image insertion support, targeting Novasell's advertiser and marketer customer base.
• ANA X Inc. (ANA X株式会社)majorTechnology or Integration · 7 April 2022Monitas supports ANA X's 'ANA Research' program, which enables ANA Mileage Club members to earn miles by participating in surveys. Monitas and its subsidiary SuperColo provide the marketing research tools and panel infrastructure, supporting ANA X's goal of creating a 'world where you can live on miles' through engaging member communication. The partnership includes CDP integration and One-to-One marketing capability.
• JR East Kikaku Inc. (株式会社ジェイアール東日本企画)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 3 August 2021Monitas entered a capital and strategic partnership with JR East Kikaku (Jeki). The partnership aims to build media effectiveness visualization tools using movement/location data combined with Monitas's panel and SuperColo customer monitoring capabilities. The goal is to create an original media data platform for OOH (out-of-home) advertising effectiveness and media planning, integrating JR East's transit data with Monitas's consumer consciousness data.
• Sharp Corporation (シャープ株式会社)majorTechnology or Integration · 20 April 2021Sharp's 'COCORO MEMBERS' platform integrated with Monitas's MONITORS system. COCORO MEMBERS users earn 'Waku Waku Points' by participating in surveys, while Monitas gains access to Sharp's consumer electronics user base as survey panelists. The partnership supports Sharp's member activation strategy and provides Monitas with a large, branded panel segment.
• LINE Corporation (LINE株式会社)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 6 February 2017Monitas entered a business partnership with LINE Corporation for the 'LINE Research Platform' — a smartphone-based research platform leveraging LINE's 65+ million MAU in Japan. Monitas provides marketing and sales strategy for the platform, which has approximately 8.5 million active research monitors (as of 2017). The partnership focuses on expanding smartphone-based net research and reaching Generation Z / young adult demographics (57% of monitors are aged 15-29).

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves9 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• INTAGE Holdings: Japan's largest independent market research firm and direct competitor in consumer panel research, marketing intelligence, and SaaS research platforms. Competes head-to-head with Monitas for Japanese enterprise research budgets and panel access.
• Cross Marketing Inc. Tokyo-listed online market research firm operating large consumer panels in Japan and Asia, providing quantitative survey research and panel access. Directly comparable in panel-based survey delivery and Japanese enterprise focus.
• Macromill: Parent company and 57.8% owner of Monitas, listed on Tokyo Stock Exchange Prime (3978). Operates the combined ~36M consumer panel network and overlapping research services globally. Provides the corporate framework within which Monitas operates.
• GMO Research & AI: Japanese online research panel operator with significant Asia-Pacific panel coverage (ASIA Cloud Panel), offering similar panel access and research services to Monitas's MONITORS business. Competes for Japanese enterprise and ASEAN cross-border research.
• Cint: Global sample and panel management technology company connecting researchers with consumer panels. Operates the Cint Exchange platform, comparable in concept to Monitas's panel integration model (MApps, OPTICO, Qualtrics).

Broad incumbents

• Toluna: Global consumer panel and online survey technology company with 30M+ panelists across 70+ countries. Competes with Monitas in cross-border research, especially for Japanese companies seeking ASEAN consumer insights through self-service platforms.
• Dynata: World's largest first-party data and research company operating a 70M+ global panel. Competes for enterprise research budgets and offers comparable B2B panel access to Monitas's MONITORS business.
• Qualtrics: Global experience management platform and both a partner (XM Platform integration) and competitor to Monitas. Qualtrics offers enterprise survey infrastructure at global scale; its partnership with Monitas signals overlapping capability sets.

Emerging players

• ListenLabs: AI-powered autonomous interview platform integrated with Monitas's MMSEA panel for ASEAN qualitative research. Emerging AI-native research platform that could either remain a partner or evolve into a direct competitor to SuperColo's qualitative capabilities.
• Prolific: Online participant recruitment and research platform with verified participant pools, competing in the DIY research segment similar to Monitas's Nobishiro and millme self-service offerings.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Subsidiaries2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments1 record

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Monitas