Nielsen Company

Nielsen Company is an American company that is involved in the market of measuring information, data, and market to study the behaviour of consumers, like what they watch and what they buy. The collected data through measurement are then given to the associated clients of the company.

Nielsen Company is the global leader that analyses media and viewer interactions on a very large scale. The worldwide headquarter of the company is located in New York City, whereas the regional headquarter for North America is in Chicago.

Many investors and companies widely use Nielsen's ratings to predict customer trends for various purposes.

Emerging of the Nielsen Company

Nielsen Company was founded in the year 1923 by Arthur C. Nielsen, and the incorporation of the company was done in 1929.

Nielsen ratings are used by investors, companies and many distinct industries like television, radio, consumer packaged goods, music, video games, advertising agencies, and sports.

In the 1920s, the Nielsen Company used to provide analysis of brand-based advertising only. However, later in the 1930s, the company extended its business and also started providing analysis for the radio market. In 1950, the Nielsen Company extended its business further to the television industry, and the same technique was used to evaluate the radio program.

Currently, Nielsen's methodology is the standard way to evaluate television, newspaper, and radio audiences worldwide.

In 1996, the Nielsen Company was split off, and a new company was created out of it, which used to deal with the rating operations; it was named Nielsen Media Research (NMR). NMR initially worked as an individual company, but later, in 1999, it was acquired by a Dutch media company or Dutch conglomerate named Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen (VNU).

Homescan Consumer Panel, now known as National Consumer Panel, is a market research tool of Nielsen Company that the company uses to track shop-based and media behaviour of consumers all over the world.

For instance, Nielsen Homescan can be used to track the purchases made by customers in retail or grocery stores. The researchers use such data to link customers' purchasing habits to household demographic data to reach various study conclusions.

Nielsen's Finances

During 2006-2011, Nielsen Company used to be a private company. Later, the company issued its IPO (Initial Public Offering), which helped it raise around $1.8 billion. Nielsen Company is now listed on New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Nielsen Company was then merged with a Dutch public company named Nielsen NV, which was also listed on New York Stock Exchange.

Nielsen Data

Various companies use Nielsen data to study the behaviour of consumers. There is a data management platform which is offered by Nielsen Company, which is called Data as a Service (DaaS).

The companies can further characterize the Data on the basis of consumer characteristics. These categories include demographics, mobile, spending, store visits, psychographics, and product purchases. Nielsen also provides Data on fast-moving consumer goods to companies.

Nielsen Company makes money by selling these data to companies and also by providing them with other services like analytics, consulting, and reporting.

Is it legal that Nielsen Company collects data from users?

Now the question arises whether the process by which the Nielsen company is collecting the consumers' Data is legal or not. They collect such data by sending emails to the customer asking them to answer some questions, and on the basis of such surveys, they provide the data to the companies. It is very important to note that the data collected by the company is completely legal as they do not share the data based on the identity of the individual. Instead, they collect data based on the overall behaviour of random users of certain groups or categories.