QuestionPro is buying PollBob, a small New Orleans consumer Internet startup that specializes in online and mobile polling technology. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but QuestionPro CEO Vivek Bhaskaran tells GeekWire that the acquisition will help strengthen its battle against Survey Monkey, especially in the increasingly important mobile arena.
“They’ve done a really amazing job in the mobile space, and that’s why we picked it up,” said Bhaskaran of PollBob. “Their iPhone app is really slick, and equally important they have a ton of users who are engaged in the app.”
PollBob boasts a user base of more than 350,000 users, with about three million opinions shared to date. It employs fewer than five people.
Bhaskaran said that PollBob will add to QuestionPro’s own polling, mobile research and survey technology, products which tend to be used more in business settings. QuestionPro is part of Survey Analytics, a 30-person Seattle company that’s been profitable for some time now.
“We have not raised any money, so we have to be profitable,” said Bhaskaran. The 10-year-old company now claims more than 2.5 million customers in 40 countries.
SurveyMonkey remains the bigger of the two companies, generating more than one million survey responses each day. It too has been on its own buying spree in recent years, gobbling up Seattle polling upstart Precision Polling in 2010 and several other startups. In 2009, Spectrum Equity and Bain Capital Ventures purchased a majority stake in Survey Monkey.
And speaking of acquisitions, PollBob itself earlier this year purchased the site Mister Poll.
