2011–2020
In 2011, YouGov acquired Portland, Oregon-based firm Definitive Insights for $1 million with a potential $2 million earn-out and also made its first organic expansion by opening an office in Paris. In January 2014, YouGov entered the Asia Pacific region with the acquisition of Decision Fuel for an estimated consideration of approximately £5 million.[14] Also in 2014, YouGov launched Profiles, an audience segmentation tool, combining data points from its most active panellists showing how the public engages with traditional and new media channels.[15][16]
In 2016, Peter Kellner stepped down as the company’s Chairman.[5] In this year, YouGov began to use a methodology known as multi-level regression and post-stratification (MRP) in its political polling. Its first public use was during the United Kingdom’s referendum on EU membership.[12] YouGov has used this approach around elections since.
In the 2017 UK General Election, YouGov’s projection was an outlier. While most pollsters projected large Conservative majorities, YouGov correctly predicted a hung parliament.[17] YouGov modelling rightly projected a number of shock results, including in Kensington and Canterbury.[18]
In December 2017, YouGov purchased Galaxy Research to establish a presence in Australia.[19] Galaxy Research was an Australian market research company that provided opinion polling for state and federal politics. Its polls were published in News Limited tabloid newspapers, including the Herald Sun, Courier-Mail, and The Daily Telegraph (in contrast to Newspoll data, which is presented in the News Limited broadsheet newspaper The Australian).[20] In 2020, YouGov launched YouGov Turkey, the result of an acquisition of Istanbul-based online research agency Wizsight.[21] The business also polled extensively around the coronavirus pandemic, working with Imperial College London to track how populations responded to the virus and associated policies.[22]
