Strong US Drives Growth for YouGov

YouGov has announced an 18% rise in revenue to £66.5m for the half year period ending 31st January 2019, compared with £56.3m in the prior year period. The firm says US demand for data products and services has enabled it to withstand the political uncertainty hitting business in Europe.

During the period, data products and services revenue rose 34% to £37.2m - it now represents 54% of the company's total revenue (2018: 49%). Breaking this down further, data products revenue increased by 35% to £19.4m, and data services revenue was up 33% to £17.8m. Custom research revenue increased by 4% to £30.4m, as the firm continued its strategic focus on higher margin work, resulting in a 15% increase in operating profit to £7.9m.

For the group, adjusted operating profit rose 41% to £12.5m, compared with £8.8m, and EBITDA was up 55% from £8.5m last year to £13.2m this.

Commenting on the results, CEO Stephan Shakespeare (pictured) said: 'In the final year of our current five-year growth plan we are continuing to deliver revenue and earnings growth ahead of the market. Our new plan focuses on three strategic pillars: activating our data to create targetable audiences, investing in technology to ensure our data is integrated and customisable, and opening up some of our data as a public resource. We believe this will help create a universal data platform for our clients, as we look to fulfil our ambition of becoming the world's leading supplier of proprietary panel data'.

Web site: www.yougov.com .