The Mobile Operator Cluster Fuck – The Saga Continues
It seems like the four major Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) can’t stay out of the news these days, as Challenges reported yesterday that Bouygues Telecom (3rd largest operator in France) is suing Iliad ( parent company of Free Mobile, the 4th largest mobile operator in France, launched earlier this year) for €100 Million for an […]
The Fancy spreading its wings in France
One of the hottest curation startups at the moment is New York-based The Fancy, a site that seeks, via a visually and technologically elegant platform, to entice people to share and, ideally, purchase actual or similar items to what they ‘fancy’. Although the sharing of beautiful ‘things’ is an integral part of the Fancy experience, […]
Chef Jérôme partners with Casino to convert recipes to carts
Earlier this month, I wrote about a few French entrepreneurs who are Stanford grads, or pseudo-grads – one of them was Chef Jerome founder Antoine Durieux, and today Chef Jerome went live with their recipe-to-online grocery list service, available on AtelierDesChefs.fr, a top recipe site in France. Very simply, the service appears next to any […]
Why Wink is not just another photo-sharing app: location, location, location
Today, Denmark-based Wink is launching it’s new photo-sharing, location-based social network. Available for iPhone today, Wink CEO Francesco Patarnello demoed the app for me at LeWeb, despite my initial evasiveness at the thought of yet another photo sharing app, Francesco’s demo really caught my attention – not to mention the ridiculous viral video he created for the launch: Room […]
5 Things to be Thankful for in the French Startup Ecosystem
The atmosphere surrounding France’s VC and startup ecosystem over the second half of the year has provided ample opportunities to dampen one’s spirits. Between the dearth of stock market liquidity, the potentially devastating fiscal policies of the new government, VC’s who behave more like overpaid lenders than risk backers, and the general macroeconomic malaise within […]
Increased Smartphone Adoption in France fueled by Free Mobile
According to the annual French digital economy barometer conducted by the Unversity of Paris-Dauphine and Médiamétrie, France’s digital economy, continues to demonstrate impressive growth. However, there are definitely a few areas of opportunity, and some watch-outs that need to be address. Here are a 3 key takeaways: The smartphone boom is evidence that competition can […]
Connecthings powers cities and companies with NFC solutions
One of the many startups I discovered at last week’s LeWeb was Connecthings. Founded by Laetitia Gazel-Anthoine, Connecthings is supplying clients (companies, smartcities, etc.) with contactless mobile services today in order to create a valued mediation between a place or object and a human being. Laetitia worked as a consultant for years for mobile operators after having […]
Here are the details on Twitter's newly formed French subsidiary
According to LeFigaro, Twitter has officially created a subsidiary, Twitter France SAS. It was announced early this year that Twitter was interviewing for a Head of France position, and then this summer the Mayor of Paris tweeted from Twitter HQ that he was looking forward to welcoming Twitter to Paris in Spring of 2013, and […]
Twitter Trends now localized in 100 cities: What's the point?
Twitter announced on their blog[fr] this week that they are rolling out localization for Twitter Trends. Users will now be able to drill down trends not only to countries, as was possible before, but to specific cities. In France, users can choose between Bordeaux, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Nantes, Paris, Rennes, Strasbourg & Toulouse – […]
European Commission strategy for tech startups: Start in Europe, Stay in Europe
Neelie Kroes, Vice-President for the Digital Agenda of the European Commission, ended the second day of LeWeb, talking about the European Commission’s strategy for supproting European tech startups. The talk was part of an ambitious action plan by the European Commission, currently being studied with input from the European startup scene, which will be presented in […]