SurveyMonkey, a decision-making and data insights platform, opened its Asia-Pacific HQ in Sydney on Thursday.
Australia is a key market for the company, having experienced a 116% year-on-year growth in the region.
The Sydney office is SurveyMonkey’s largest investment outside of the US and Europe.
Leading the team is former LinkedIn exec, Tony Ward.
Business Insider sat down with Ward, and CEO Zander Lurie, who is visiting Sydney this week, to discuss why Australia was chosen over the more central countries in the market.
Lurie began by saying the company was “born to go global”.
“You don’t have to have offices all over the place to go global because of the internet. As we’ve expanded we’ve tried to pick markets where we have a good foothold in, and Australia is a great market,” he said.
“It’s a culture that appreciates data, and we have a terrific base of users here.
“We’re a business that’s over 15 years old and we’re still earlier in the growth phase. This is a massive market for us. Australia is one of our most important markets, on top of what is going to be the broader APAC strategy, and that’s why we’re here. We’re going to continue to invest in people and spend, and make sure we capitalise on that.”
Ward said overall subscriptions have grown 45% in Australia.
“It’s always been a really big market — it’s the third biggest market for SurveyMonkey globally’ he said, adding that Australia’s early adoption of technology and booming small business growth is a great opportunity.
That, and apparently the late Dave Goldberg, former CEO of SurveyMonkey, had a soft spot for the city. He lived here in the early 1990s while setting up the Sydney office for management consultants Bain & Co.
In total, more than 50,000 businesses are now using SurveyMonkey in Australia, including major clients such as the NRL, Lindt, REA and Dropbox.
The APAC HQ opening follows the launch of the newly-acquired TechValidate product in Australia, which collects and transforms customer experience data into key insights.
Business Insider took a quick tour of the local digs.
Here’s what they look like.
Business Insider Emails & Alerts
Site highlights each day to your inbox.
Follow Business Insider Australia on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.