Go.Compare (formerly GoCompare.com) is a British financial services comparison company based in

Newport, Wales Newport ( cy, Casnewydd; ) is a city and county borough in Wales, situated on the River Usk close to its confluence with the Severn Estuary, northeast of Cardiff. With a population of 145,700 at the 2011 census, Newport is the third-largest a ...

. Its website provides comparison details for financial products including car insurance, home and pet insurance and breakdown cover. Since 2021 it has been owned by

Future plc Future plc is an international multimedia company established in the United Kingdom in 1985. The company has over 220 brands that span magazines, newsletters, websites, and events in fields such as video games, technology, films, music, photogr ...

. The company is known for its advertising campaign, which in 2015 was voted as the "most irritating advertisement."

History

Goco was established in November 2006 and is based in Newport,

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. The company's founder was Hayley Parsons, who worked for Admiral Insurance for 14 years, and was formerly head of business development at

Confused.com Confused.com is a UK based financial services comparison platform specialising in comparison of insurance and financial services, including car insurance, home insurance, energy, van insurance and life insurance. Confused.com's platform include ...

. Parsons was replaced as CEO by Jon Morrell following a takeover by insurance company

esure Esure Group plc (stylised as ''esure'') is an Internet and telephone based insurance company based in Reigate, Surrey, England. It also has offices in Manchester and Glasgow. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquir ...

in March 2015 It was the first comparison site to focus on features of insurance products rather than just listing prices, which led to the company being invited to become a member of the British Insurance Brokers Association (BIBA). The company, which at the time was 49% owned by insurance company

, posted a pre-tax profit of £34.7 million for 2011, up 15% on the previous year. On 8 December 2014, esure acquired Goco in a deal worth £95 million. In November 2016 the company was the subject of a demerger from esure. In November 2017, ZPG's offer to buy the company for £460 million was rejected. In December 2017, GoCompare announced the acquisition of MyVoucherCodes, one of the UK's largest online voucher code sites, in a £36.5m deal. In November 2020, GoCompare agreed to a £594m takeover offer from

, Britain’s biggest magazines publisher.

Services

GoCompare provides a comparison service for

vehicle A vehicle (from la, vehiculum) is a machine that transports people or cargo. Vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, mobility scooters for disabled people), railed vehicles (trains, trams), ...

, life insurance in conjunction with its partners Neilson Financial Services, home and

pet insurance Pet insurance is a form of insurance that pays, partly or in total, for veterinary treatment of the insured person's ill or injured pet. Some policies will pay out when the pet dies, or if the pet is lost or stolen. As veterinary medicine is in ...

, and breakdown cover. It also provides comparison services for

travel insurance Travel insurance is an insurance product for covering unforeseen losses incurred while travelling, either internationally or domestically. Basic policies generally only cover emergency medical expenses while overseas, while comprehensive policies ...

, gas and electricity,

broadband In telecommunications, broadband is wide bandwidth data transmission which transports multiple signals at a wide range of frequencies and Internet traffic types, that enables messages to be sent simultaneously, used in fast internet connections. ...

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that ...

credit card A credit card is a payment card issued to users (cardholders) to enable the cardholder to pay a merchant for goods and services based on the cardholder's accrued debt (i.e., promise to the card issuer to pay them for the amounts plus the o ...

s, mortgages and other financial products through preferred providers such as Energylinx and Experian. On 14 August 2012, the company launched "Covered mag", an online magazine that claims to be "unlike any other financial publication you've ever read".

Advertising

In June 2009 the company launched an advertising campaign featuring a fictional Italian

tenor A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is wide ...

called Gio Compario, played by

Wynne Evans Wynne Evans BEM MStJ (born 27 January 1972) is a Welsh singer and actor, known for his role as Gio Compario and laterly himself in the Go.compare insurance adverts on television in the United Kingdom. Evans sang the role of Ubaldo Piangi i ...

. The advertisements feature 'Gio' singing the 'Go Compare' tune (inspired by Over There) in various locations, and in 2015 were voted "most irritating advertisement". In response to this reaction, Go Compare deliberately subverted the campaign in July 2012 by running a series of adverts where celebrity guests such as Sue Barker,

Jimmy Carr James Anthony Patrick Carr (born 15 September 1972) is a British-Irish comedian, presenter, writer, and actor. He is known for his deadpan delivery of controversial one-liners and distinctive laugh, for which he has been both praised and criti ...

, Stuart Pearce,

Ray Mears Raymond Paul Mears (born 7 February 1964) is a British woodsman, instructor, businessman, author and TV presenter. His TV appearances cover bushcraft and survival techniques. He is best known for the TV series '' Ray Mears' Bushcraft'', '' Ra ...

Louie Spence Louie Spence (born 6 April 1969) is an English dancer, choreographer and television personality, best known for the TV show '' Pineapple Dance Studios''. He was a professional dancer in his youth, performing in West End musicals including ''Mi ...

and Stephen Hawking lined up to "silence" the character of Gio Compario. Marketing officer Kevin Hughes said, "It was risky, but a brand has to listen to its customers." The character returned in July 2015 after an 18-month break, singing as part of what Evans called a "much calmer performance". The character appeared again in 2020 after the coronavirus lockdown measures were eased in the UK in July 2020.

Public image

In September 2007 the company admitted that, on one occasion, an unlawful breach of privacy had taken place with regard to the passing on of data provided by customers. It said that this was the result of a breach of contract by a sub-contractor, Performance Direct, and stated that it would take immediate action to prevent it happening again. In January 2008 the site was blacklisted for a time by

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

due to "irregular inbound links". This resulted in its share of search traffic for the term "car insurance" reducing from 17.49% to 2.31%. Gocompare.com was blacklisted again in April 2009. In August 2019 the company received criticism from road safety organisations after debuting an advert depicting the Gio Compario character crashing into a tree and flipping over. The Advertising Standards Authority received over 70 complaints regarding the advertisement.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Go Compare Companies based in Newport, Wales Vehicle insurance Financial services companies established in 2006 Comparison shopping websites Online financial services companies of the United Kingdom 2006 establishments in the United Kingdom