YouGov Buys Tech Firm Rezonence for Panel Expansion

YouGov has acquired tech business Rezonence, in a move which it says will allow data collection at 'unprecedented scale', turning hundreds of millions of consumers across the world into potential zero-party virtual YouGov panellists. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

Rezonence operates its proprietary FreeWall ad format, providing access to online content after consumers engage with an advert or take a micro-survey. With this platform, clients get access to audiences through 'fraud-free and transparent interactions', while consumers get rewarded for their engagement with access to premium content and more relevant ads.

As part of the deal, Rezonence founder and CEO Prash Naidu (pictured) will join YouGov to assist with the technology integration. Before setting up Rezonence in 2013, Naidu was a Quant Analyst at Deutsche Bank, and at hedge funds Harmonic Capital, and Clarke & Bartlett Asset Management, and he founded news aggregator ReadTheNews.net.

Stephan Shakespeare, CEO and co-founder of YouGov, comments: 'Bringing Rezonence into the YouGov fold is a major step forward in our development from being an audience insights platform to also being an audience activation platform. It extends YouGov's capabilities over a much wider scale in a way that is entirely consistent with the strengths of the data engine we've built over the years. The ability to engage consumers as they go about their lives online not only means clients can reach them en masse but they can do so ethically and efficiently.'

Web sites: www.yougov.com and www.rezonence.com .