Investments eat into YouGov profits, but sales rise 11%

SoMA, which launches at the end of this month, uses a panel of 10,000 Twitter users who have agreed to let YouGov track their incoming tweets. These individuals can then be surveyed to work out whether those tweets had any influence on their opinions.

The company plans to add similar capabilities for measuring Facebook later this year.

YouGov is also preparing to launch a new dashboard product to bring together all its various data streams, designed for use by senior company executives. Other investments have been made in the SixthSense reports business, its French operations and in new products for the investment sector, including the Heat economic confidence tracker.

Adjusted operating profit for the six months to 31 January was £2m, compared to £2.2m the year before.

In the UK, revenue was up 21% to £7.7m while adjusted operating profit was up 16% to £1.5m. US revenue grew 35% (or 15% on an organic basis) to £9.6m, while profit held steady at £1m.

German sales were down 21% to £5m, but up 9% on a like-for-like basis (which excludes discontinued businesses). Profits fell 61% to £100,000. Nordic revenue rose 13% to £4.4m and profits increased 72% to £300,000.

Finally, in the Middle East revenue was down 4% to £3.5m with the ending of a long-term contract in Iraq but profit increased 2% to £900,000.