How many companies are there in the student research industry?

Hi there,

I am doing some research in to this industry and the deeper I delve, the more confused I become. There seems to be a network of similar companies apparently all owned by a small number of people. Many sites I find look the same as others and are heavily linked to each other, indicating that they are not competing. The only reason I can see is that as soon as a company receives a bad reputation, usually on forums such as this, they start a new one to compensate?

Also, the language use on many of these sites indicates that the vast majority are not even based in the UK despite what they say on their websites.

Any help would be greatly welcome.

Btw. Reviews of legit services are also needed :)

Thanks.