We read, we don't just count.
Mention volumes and sentiment scores tell you what was said, but they cannot tell you what it means. We work in narratives and interpretations, not just datasets and statements.
About Bakamo — a social intelligence company
Build on reality.
The why — our purpose & beliefs
We believe in closing the gap between decision-makers and people.
For too long, the research industry has flattened the world it was supposed to understand. People are squeezed into segments, complex motivations are reduced to percentages, and messy human realities are simplified just to fit a brief.
When you ask people a question, they instinctively try to fit themselves into the boxes they are given. What they actually think stays unsaid. We come from different backgrounds, but we share the same deep frustration: traditional research forces people to conform to the researcher's assumptions, producing a photograph of somebody else's question rather than the truth.
Bakamo exists because we stopped accepting that.
We naively, yet fiercely, believe that if decision-makers could see people more clearly — as citizens, patients, audiences, and peers — they would make wiser decisions, not just more informed ones. Wiser decisions come from understanding why things matter to the people living them.
Our ambition is simple: we advocate for the people on the other side of the research by making their reality impossible to ignore.
The how — our approach
We stop asking questions and start listening to natural conversations.
People are most interesting — and most honest — when nobody is asking them a question. Instead of prompting responses, we find meaning in the things people are already saying to each other.
Here is how we uncover the Social Truth:
Human judgment + technology.
Technology can scale reading, but it cannot replace judgment. Our proprietary technology — the Reading Machine — holds entire conversations at once so nothing is missed, but a named, accountable expert is always responsible for what it actually means.
We embrace the messiness.
The categories come from the data; we never impose them. We capture the shared, underlying assumptions people carry into every decision — the things that go without saying.
We tell the truth, even if it's uncomfortable.
Our job is not to confirm what you already think. It is to expose what you haven't seen. We interrogate the brief, challenge hypotheses, and are never afraid to bring you the bad news if it reflects reality.
In fact, “Bakamo” is a nod to the Japanese word for “fool” — a reminder of the medieval jester, who was the only person in the court permitted to speak the unvarnished truth to those in power.
The what — what we do & our proof
We are a social intelligence company.
We uncover what people really think by reading unprompted conversations across the globe, translating that meaning into strategic, actionable insights for our clients. We work wherever understanding people matters:
Commercial Research
Brands, culture, communications, and emerging consumer needs.
Health & Pharma
Patients, health equity, public discourse, and the social forces shaping health.
Not-for-Profit & Government
Citizens, public opinion, policy, and social movements.
The proof
550+
projects
45
countries
65
languages
From Fortune 100 companies and global brands to the European Commission, NATO, and Amnesty International, our work drives tangible impact. We have helped brands execute commercial turnarounds, informed public policy (including citations in the US Senate), and advanced academic science.
The Atlas of Social Truths.
A selection of our work, wherever the conversation lives. Click a dot.
Click a lit point
The people
The people who win the work stay close to the work.
When you work with us, there is no senior pitch team that disappears after kick-off. We are proud to work with a global network of 250+ analysts and helpers, bringing the linguistic and analytical skills to read conversations in their own languages.
We work directly, collaboratively, and alongside your team to give you findings you can act on, rather than a document you have to translate.