FWIW, I work for an ASX30 company and we switched to ISD near...

FWIW, I work for an ASX30 company and we switched to ISD near the end of last year. We use their media monitoring service and the social media monitoring service.

I've actually found them very responsive and helpful - certainly no issues with how they treat their clients in my experience.

The media monitoring service (Media Portal) works very well, nothing more than a few teetering issues. I don't know their overall business particularly well (which is why I am nosing around here) but I presume this is the most mature part of their business. I really can't imagine switching away unless it becomes a cost issue.

Their social media monitoring service on the other hand is quite problematic. Facebook made changes to prevent services like ISD from scouring their content so it's almost become a manual job. This isn't an ISD specific issue but it does make the service less valuable. We may end up canning the contract on this one. However, this does bring me to the original point - ISD have been very responsive and open about their issues with this service which is probably why we've kept it as long as we have. Obviously they have different client managers so mileage may vary but I thought people might be interested in an actual client's perspective.

I do agree with your point about the thin moat though. A company like Google would be incredibly well positioned to enter this space.