Timeline

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offices

  • 2000

    • YouGov is established as the pioneer of internet-based market research.
    • The company is co-founded by Stephan Shakespeare and Nadhim Zahawi, who first met while working in British politics.
    • The official company registration name is YouGov Dot Com Limited.
    • Shakespeare and Zahawi are joint Chief Executive Officers.

  • 2001

    • YouGov makes the most accurate prediction of the 2001 UK General Election, and follows it up by getting the UK Conservative leadership election right. Sceptics who said online research can’t be accurate are having second thoughts and the media starts quoting YouGov more and more.
    • Peter Kellner joins YouGov as Chair.

  • 2002

    • The company name is re-registered as YouGov Limited and the office moves from Westminster to Farringdon, London.
    • YouGov correctly predicts the winner of UK Pop Idol and subsequently gains its first major media partner client with the Daily Telegraph.

  • 2003

    • To complement its custom research offering, YouGov launches the fast turn-around service, YouGov Omnibus.
    • YouGov becomes a founding member of the British Polling Council.

  • 2005

    • YouGov announces its proprietary panel has grown to 100,000 people in the UK
    • In the 2005 UK General Election, YouGov adds to its record of accuracy, being the only polling company to consistently, and correctly, show Labour narrowly ahead of the Conservatives throughout the campaign.
    • YouGov floats on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange and becomes YouGov plc.
    • Our core data product YouGov BrandIndex is launched – providing daily tracking of over 1,000 consumer brands across seven different measures of brand perception.
    • Former British PM, Tony Blair, publically references YouGov data to demonstrate his position in the public opinion polls.

  • 2006

    • YouGov acquires Middle-East based research firm Siraj and opens an office in Dubai.

  • 2007

    • YouGov acquires US-based research firm Polimetrix in California, led by Doug Rivers.
    • This global expansion opens up several new offices throughout the US and Europe.
    • Alex McIntosh joins YouGov as a Corporate Finance Manager.
    • Roger Parry is appointed as Non-Executive Chair.
    • YouGov’s proprietary panel grows to 1.5 million people worldwide.

  • 2008

    • YouGov establishes an office in New York City.
    • YouGov accurately predicts the London Mayoral 2008 election within one percentage point.

  • 2009

    • YouGov acquires the Princeton, New Jersey-based research firm Clear Horizons, boosting its East Coast presence.
    • YouGov is the most quoted market research source in UK media.
    • YouGov's proprietary panel surpasses 2 million people worldwide.

  • 2010

    • Zahawi retires from YouGov, to pursue his current role as a Member of Parliament for Stratford-on-Avon, and Shakespeare takes the helm as Chief Executive Officer.
    • YouGov acquires US-based Harrison Group in Connecticut, expanding its east coast footprint.

  • 2011

    • YouGov opens its first organic office in Europe, in Paris, France.
    • YouGov acquires market research firm Definitive Insights which expands the US West Coast footprint with its office in Portland, Oregon.

  • 2012

    • YouGov establishes a Technology and Web Development Hub in Warsaw, Poland.
    • YouGov's propriety panel reaches over 3 million people across 30 countries.

  • 2013

    • Stephan Shakespeare Chairs the UK Government’s Data Strategy Board and leads a Cabinet-office backed independent review of Public Sector Information, exploring ways to utilise information held within the public sector; it is known as ‘Shakespeare Review’.
    • YouGov acquires Opigram, a platform that facilitates the proactive sharing of opinions by the YouGov panel.

  • 2014

    • The YouGov acquisition of Decision Fuel establishes an APAC presence.
    • YouGov announces its first long-term strategic plan (for the five year period 2014-2019) focussed on growing the company’s syndicated data capabilities, and re-brands itself as a data and analytics company.
    • Our audience planning and segmentation tool, YouGov Profiles, is launched and goes viral, receiving over a million searches in its first week and was a trending topic on Twitter.
    • Development starts on Crunch, the cloud-based data analytics platform, and the YouGov Cube, our highly structured and codified profile data library.

  • 2015

    • YouGov establishes its first Data Processing Service Centre, located in Bucharest, Romania.

  • 2016

    • Pew Research Centre publishes a report stating that YouGov consistently outperforms competitors on accuracy.
    • YouGov's proprietary panel expands to 5 million people across 38 countries.

  • 2017

    • YouGov opens a second Data Processing Service Centre, located in Mumbai, India.
    • YouGov completes the acquisition of Galaxy Research, the Sydney-based market research company providing opinion polling for state and federal politics.
    • YouGov accurately predicts the ‘hung’ parliament outcome of the 2017 UK General Election. The prediction was made possible by YouGov’s pioneering use of MRP methodology (Multi-level Regression with Post-stratification).
    • YouGov boosts its data protection and security capabilities in the lead up to the EU GDPR coming into force.
    • Alex McIntosh is promoted to the role of Chief Finance Officer and both he and Sundip Chahal join the YouGov plc Board, sitting alongside Stephan Shakespeare and the Non-Executive Directors.
    • The YouGov footprint reaches 30 offices across 20 countries, and group turnover exceeds £100m for the first time.

  • 2018

    • YouGov expands its European footprint by establishing offices in Italy and Spain.
    • YouGov fully acquires the sports media research data business, SMG Insight and re-brands it as YouGov Sport.
    • YouGov fully acquires Portent.io and re-brands it its data product for the entertainment industry as YouGov Signal.
    • YouGov fully acquires the audience chat platform Inconversation Media and re-brands it as Inconvo.

  • 2019

    • YouGov global panel grows to over 8 million members worldwide.
    • YouGov announces new Global Affiliate Partnerships Programme, with partnerships in Russia, Poland, Pakistan, Egypt and Japan.
    • YouGov receives the International Organisation for Standardisation certification for information security (ISO 27001).
    • YouGov launches advertising block chain technology tool, YouGov Direct.
    • YouGov announces the start of its next five-year strategic growth plan, with ambitious targets to scale the business - For more on our strategy, click here.

  • 2020

    • YouGov launches new NPS and brand tracking service, YouGov Recommend+.
    • YouGov launches YouGov DestinationIndex, a new daily destination tracker in multiple markets.
    • YouGov launches YouGov COVID-19 Behaviour Tracker with Imperial College, London.
    • YouGov's proprietary panel grows to over 11 million registered members worldwide.

  • 2021

    • YouGov acquires Canadian sports research firm, Charlton Insights, open banking start-up Lean App, and LINK Marketing Services.
    • YouGov commences biggest simultaneous expansion of YouGov’s panel into 15 new markets in Europe, South America, the Middle East and North Africa .
    • Launched Global Code of Conduct & Ethics.
    • YouGov celebrates its 21st birthday with staff and clients.
    • YouGov wins AIM Corporate Governance Award.

  • 2022

  • 2023

    • Steve Hatch takes over as CEO from Stephan Shakespeare, who becomes Non-Executive Chair on 1st August 2023.
    • Published our first annual Workforce Diversity Report.
    • Won the Megabuyte Quoted25 2023 Award for Best Performing Company (Information Management).
    • YouGov's proprietary panel grows to over 24 million people worldwide.
    • YouGov’s acquisition of GfK’s Consumer Panel Business announced.

  • 2024

    • YouGov acquires GfK’s Consumer Panel Business (CPS), growing the business to over 3,000 employees.
    • YouGov acquires KnowledgeHound to expand scope of its data analytics offering.
    • Combined business now has a presence in 60+ countries.
    • YouGov's proprietary panel grows to 27 million people worldwide.

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