YouGov reports revenue and profit hike for 2018

Its data products and services revenue was up 25% to £59.4m and now represents 50% of the group.

Custom research revenue was down 3% to £58.7m which the company said was as expected, due to a strategic focus on higher margin work.

YouGov began a five-year plan in 2014 – it will end on 31 July 2019 – to shift the balance of the business from one-off custom research to syndicated data products provided on a subscription basis.

Stephan Shakespeare (pictured), YouGov’s chief executive, said: "We have delivered revenue and profit growth significantly ahead of our industry and continue to track to meet the financial objectives set out in our five-year plan.

"Increasingly, our clients are demanding the rapid analysis of data in real-time and through targeted investments in technology we have built a data engine which serves the modern marketer. However, as the technology of decision making evolves, so must our products and applications. Trading in the current financial year has started well, underpinning the Board’s confidence in meeting their expectations for the year."