GfK was founded as GfK-Nürnberg Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung e. V. in 1934 by university lecturers from Nuremberg, among them the future German Minister of Economic Affairs and Federal Chancellor
Ludwig Erhard. The concept was developed by co-founder Wilhelm Vershofen. Initially, the association conducted 71 different studies, including: • Awareness of trademarks • Personal care and soap consumption in Germany • Structure of beverage consumption in Germany • Patient and pharmaceuticals • Motorist assessment of road maps from fuel companies After the war, GfK’s activities from 1934 to 1945 were investigated by the American occupying powers. Following this investigation, GfK received a license to continue its activities in 1947. In 1984, commercial activities were spun off into GfK GmbH, which was renamed GfK AG on January 23, 1990. At that time, the “GfK Association” was limited to promoting market and sales research. In 2010, the company was the world's fourth-largest market research company by revenue. In December 2016, the American private equity firm
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) made a takeover bid for 18.54 percent of the company's shares. Since March 2017, GfK SE has been majority-owned (96.7%) by the investment fund Acceleratio Capital N.V., a holding company of KKR. In the autumn of 2018, GfK’s French competitor
Ipsos acquired a division of GfK with 1,000 staff dealing with client-specific projects for 105 million euros. In 2020, GfK launched gfknewron, a new AI-powered platform. Therefore, customers can access relevant data in real time and receive recommendations for action based on predictions.
Acquisitions In April 2005, it acquired NOP World (originally National Opinion Polls), based mostly in the
United Kingdom, the
United States and
Italy, which was rated the world's ninth largest market research business. In May 2008, it acquired an equity stake in Deep-Packet Inspection company Qosmos in order to track and monitor Internet usage for marketing research. In 2016, GfK acquired Netquest and Wakoopa. == Organisation ==