YouGov PLC
24 August 2007
24 August 2007
YouGov plc
YouGov signs joint venture with Photon Group in Australia
YouGov plc ('YouGov' or the 'Company'), the UK's leading online market research
agency, today announces that it has signed a joint venture with Australia's
Photon Group to form YouGovAustralia, in which YouGov will hold a 25% stake.
YouGovAustralia will bring together YouGov's online expertise and strong
international brand with Photon's local knowledge and established online market
research presence. YouGovAustralia will seek to replicate YouGov's success in
the UK and Middle East to bring its opinion, polling and market research product
offering to Australia.
YouGovAustralia intends to establish a representative internet panel of up to
50,000 Australians by October 2007 to enable it to conduct online polls for the
forthcoming Federal Election. The majority of Australian political polling is
conducted via telephone surveys despite the fact that this can lead to higher
error rates. YouGovAustralia believes that its representative online polls will
eliminate much of this error. YouGov has produced the most accurate predications
of the last eight political elections in the UK.
Commenting on the JV announcement, Nadhim Zahawi, Chief Executive of YouGov,
said: 'YouGov has a proven track record in providing fast and accurate online
political polling through its representative panels. We are confident that we
will be able to leverage this through our Australian JV and provide competitive
online market research. Our JV with Photon Group is consistent with our strategy
of growing our business internationally and exporting YouGov's business model
and products into new markets.'
Enquiries:
YouGov plc
Nadhim Zahawi / Katherine Lee 020 7012 6000
info@yougov.com
Financial Dynamics
Charles Palmer / Nicola Biles 020 7831 3113
Note to Editors:
Founded in May 2000, YouGov has become the de facto choice for conducting
professional market research. For year-end 2006, turnover rose by over 200 per
cent to £9.5 million. For the half-year to January, YouGov, which lifted UK
client numbers by 46 per cent to 263 and claims to be enjoying 'good levels' of
repeat business, squeezed pre-tax profits of £2.3 million from group turnover of
£6.1 million. The embryonic Middle Eastern arm was boosted by an acquisition
last year and grew 53 per cent.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange