Liam Boogar
What’s in a Name? 10 French startup name-changes, for better or worse
Whether it’s dropping the “the” (TheFacebook –> Facebook) because Justin Timberlake told you so, or changing your name to “HighTail” (YouSendIt –> HighTail) because… well, sometimes there’s no good reason for a name change, but we notice them anyway. A name can be a pretty powerful thing – it’s your brand, your identity, your id […]
Abracadacom is a one-day bootcamp in all the things that startups suck in.
As the fall season kicks off, I can’t think of a better way for startups to get back into the swing of things for the Fall Conference Season than by attending Abracadacom, a one-day event that will discuss branding, PR, communications, and marketing – I’ll even be discussing launching internationally alongside Cookening CEO Cedric Giorgi […]
This Stanford Knight talk gives a preview into the future of digital media
Digital media is the next big frontier – don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Traditional business models and distribution are disappearing, and consumer content consumption habits & expectations are changing. In a recent talk about her year as a Fellow in Stanford’s John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship, Marie-Catherine Beuth (@M_C_B) discussed a project she has been […]
France’s latest social network reveals just how much trouble print media is in today
The past few years have been quite rough for print media around the world. Traditional print newspapers like New York Times have become the exception to the rule in their successful transfer to digital (even though it’s still losing revenue each year), while Newsweek has stopped publishing print altogether. France has had its own set […]
Twitter in hot water again in France – this time, for Homophobic Hashtags
The problem with giving into the requests of the government is that, well, you have to follow through. After an altercation with a few advocacy groups and the French government over some anti-Semitic trending hashtags earlier this year, Twitter promised to provide a streamlined access for users ( & the government) to signal inappropriate content. […]
LeCamping now accepting applications for Season 5 of its no-equity accelerator
Paris accelerator LeCamping has opened up applications to the fifth season of its no-equity accelerator. Run by Silicon Sentier, applications to the program are due by September 25th, with the program starting on November 15th in the new Silicon Sentier space, which recently crowdfunded 70K€ of the 1M€+ budget for the newly renovated space. Paris’ […]
Twitter’s #Music iOS app now available in France, but is it too late?
Twitter’s first vertical service #music got an update on Friday which opened the iOS app up to new countries including France, meaning that this blogger finally got to try out the service. While Twitter was an instantly global service, #music took a few month to launch internationally; however, users may have trouble adopting the service, despite […]
Index Ventures invests in Paris Accelerator TheFamily, which plans to welcome 100 startups per year
After just 5 months of being operational, Paris Accelerator The Family has received an undisclosed amount of investment from Index Ventures. TheFamily will not use this money to invest in its 30 startups, but will instead use the money to continue operations. Founded by Oussama Ammar, Alice Zagury & Nicolas Colin, The Family takes a […]
Japan’s NTT purchases 91% stake in collaboration software maker Arkadin for €350M
One of the world’s largest TelCo. companies, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT)’s subsidiary NTT Communications & Arkadin announced this week that the former would acquire a %91.2 stake in the latter, an amount that would cost NTT Communications 350 Milion Euros, according to LeMonde. Today, Arkadin is known notably for its audio, web, and video conferencing […]
SFR & Orange sued for €1.4 Billion for Anti-competitive practices by… every other French mobile operator
L’Express reported this week that Orange & SFR are being taken to court by four of their biggest competitors – Bouygues Telecom, Oméa Telecom (Virgin Mobile), Outremer Telecom (Only), and Euro-Information Telecom (NRJ Mobile, CIC Mobile) – over claims of unfair practices between the mobile providers between 2005 and 2008. The suit comes now after similar decision […]