SurveyMonkey’s free product so good, hard to convert Indian users to paid plans: CEO Eric Johnson

Eric Johnson, Global CEO SurveyMonkey Inc (Right) and Jeetendra Agrawal, VP Engineering (India) and at SurveyMonkey's Bengaluru office launch announcement

SurveyMonkey CEO Eric Johnson is grappling with a challenge common to global consumer tech firms in the Indian market — one that Uber’s Dara Khosrowshahi also recently highlighted: convincing India’s cost-conscious consumers to pay for premium services.

“Our biggest challenge is that we have a very good free product,” Johnson said in an interview with Moneycontrol.

“We’re getting paid customers, but the conversion rate is lower here than in other countries. However, we haven’t fully focused on driving that just yet,” he said.

Johnson’s remarks come at a time when the online survey platform announced the opening of its first office in India, located in Bengaluru.

SurveyMonkey stated that this office reflects its commitment to the Indian market, yet it underscores the broader challenge of monetising in a price-sensitive economy.

The company’s experience is similar to that of many tech players attempting to move beyond free offerings in India, where consumers are accustomed to robust, no-cost digital solutions.

Uber, for example, has also struggled with premium service adoption. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi’s efforts to grow Uber’s revenue in India face similar headwinds, with customers reluctant to pay for premium services, but demanding more offerings.

Speaking at a fireside chat with Infosys co-founder and Aadhaar architect Nandan Nilekani in Bengaluru on February 22, Khosrowshahi acknowledged the difficulties posed by the Indian market, stating, "India is one of the toughest markets out there; they are so demanding and do not pay for anything. If we can succeed here, we can succeed anywhere else."

Also Read: India is one of the toughest markets for Uber, says CEO Dara Khosrowshahi

Last year, audio streaming service Spotify also tweaked its free service in India by moving a few features behind a subscription, in a push to expand its paid subscriber base in the country.

Plans to double employee base by March 2025

SurveyMonkey, now owned by an investor consortium led by private equity firm Symphony Technology Group (STG), currently has around 2,000 paid customers that include enterprises like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Aditya Birla Group, Shapoorji Pallonji, and firms like Swiggy.

“The opportunity, I think, is the one that's exciting for me because we haven't put any additional effort into that… I don't think we're going to put a huge focus on building that business in India until we get to the end of 2025,” he added.

The key is figuring out what the pricing should be and what the paid features need to look like that work for the free user and get them to pay, Johnson said.

The initial focus will however be on building the team around its research and development (R&D) and data efforts, he said. SurveyMonkey plans to double its employee base to over 100 people by March 2025.

“Twenty-five percent of our R&D efforts will happen in India by 2025. There are certain functions like market research and audience, where we have moved the entire development effort to the country,” Johnson said.

The firm is also open to acquisitions of companies that complement its business offerings.

“If there's something complementary, that has a consistent user base and go-to-market strategy, it would make a lot of sense. And so we're definitely open to looking, but it's not in the plans right now,” the CEO said.

Going forward, SurveyMonkey also plans to enhance the discovery of features, such as support for different languages, on its platform.

“We have built many features over the past 25 years, but sometimes they get buried in menus and drop downs. We are getting better at that, being aware of where the customer is coming from to surface the options for them,” Johnson said.

SurveyMonkey offers support for 56 languages, including four Indian languages - Hindi, Tamil, Punjabi, and Bengali. English accounts for only 13 percent of the surveys sent in the country, Johnson said. The biggest contributor is Hindi, followed by Tamil, he said, without disclosing the numbers.

Johnson also mentioned that artificial intelligence (AI) has catalysed the company’s business and will change the way how people use the product.

“We use AI actively for creating surveys and analysis. Mobile becomes an amazing input opportunity with AI because you don't want to type out and build a 20-question survey. You can do that in one simple prompt,” he said.

SurveyMonkey’s journey

The company was founded in 1999 by Ryan Finley and Chris Finkey as a simple tool for creating and distributing online surveys.

Private equity firms Spectrum Equity and Bain Capital acquired SurveyMonkey for about $100 million in 2009.

Finley stepped down, and late Dave Goldberg, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, was brought in as the CEO. After Goldberg's death in May 2015, Bill Veghte served as the CEO for six months before being replaced by Zander Lurie in January.

In September 2018, SurveyMonkey listed on NASDAQ, raising $180 million in its initial public offering. In 2021, the company rebranded its parent entity to Momentive, aiming to expand beyond surveys into the broader market of experience management and insights.

In February 2022, Zendesk announced a deal to acquire Momentive for $4.1 billion. Zendesk shareholders, however, rejected the deal.

In March 2023, a private equity consortium led by STG acquired Momentive to take it private in a $1.5 billion all-cash deal.

The deal was completed in June 2023 following which the company changed the name back to SurveyMonkey. It also named Johnson, who had joined the firm a year earlier, as the interim chief marketing officer, the CEO.

SurveyMonkey currently has a significant presence in the online surveys and forms segment and also provides real-time insights through an intuitive feedback platform.

“Customer feedback, employee feedback, and market research are our biggest use cases at present. About 80 percent of our customers are using us for these three options,” Johnson said.