The History of Corporate

The History of the Large Company Model

Nielsen

Company: The Nielsen Company (formerly Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeversbedrijven)

Founders: Arthur C. Nielsen

Industry: Information; Marketing Research

History:

The Nielsen Company is known all over the world as the leader in marketing information, audience evaluation and business media services. Major players in various industries have used the data generated by Nielsen Company to allow them to choose the best strategy to address their respective markets. The company has headquarters in New York, USA and Haarlem in the Netherlands, both of which oversee their operations in over a hundred countries.

The Nielsen Company was formed in 1964 after the two Dutch publishing groups De Spaarnestad and Cebema merged to become Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeversbedrijven (translated as “United Dutch Publishing Companies”). The name was eventually abbreviated to VNU Group b.v. in 1999. In 2007, the company took on the name of The Nielsen Company to reflect the names of several of its divisions.

The name Nielsen is almost always associated with the Nielsen ratings used by television networks all over the globe to determine their share of the viewing market. This system was developed by Arthur Nielsen and was licensed by VNU as part of their acquisition of ACNielsen. The data generated by this system is used by television companies to give them a marketing advantage over their competitors by knowing how often and what viewers watch and would like to watch. The Nielsen Ratings is also one of the major factors that determine advertising rates for particular times of the day.

The Nielsen Company also owns publications like Billboard and The Bookseller. Aside from these, the Nielsen Company also has adapted to the changing media around us, which is reflected by their ownership of companies such as Nielsen SoundScan and RingScan, two services that monitor music downloads and mobile ringtone downloads respectively.

Today, the Nielsen Company remains to be the name associated with media information and other market research services for businesses to increase their success rate in their respective industries.

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