YouGov

YouGov plc is a British international Internet-based market research and data analytics firm headquartered in the UK with operations in Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific. In 2007, it acquired the US company Polimetrix, and since December 2017, it has owned Galaxy Research, an Australian market research company. Stephan Shakespeare and future UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Nadhim Zahawi formed YouGov in the United Kingdom in May 2000. In 2001, they engaged BBC political analyst Peter Kellner, who became chairman and then, from 2007 to 2016, President. In April 2005, YouGov became a public company listed on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange. In 2007, polling firm Polimetrix, headed by Stanford University professor Doug Rivers, was acquired by the company. 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). In December 2017, YouGov purchased Galaxy Research to establish a presence in Australia. Stephan Shakespeare has been YouGov's Chief Executive Officer since 2010. Roger Parry has been YouGov's Chairman since 2007. Since Peter Kellner's retirement as chair in 2016, its methodology has been overseen by Doug Rivers, former owner of Polimetrix. major shareholders of the company included Liontrust Asset Management (14.23%); Standard Life Aberdeen (8.6%); Octopus Investments (7.78%); BlackRock (7.63%); and Stephan & Rosamund Shakespeare (6.85%). YouGov is a member of the British Polling Council. YouGov specialises in market research and opinion polling through online methods. The company's methodology involves obtaining responses from an invited group of Internet users, and then weighting these responses in line with demographic information.