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French
The French language ("français", in French) is spoken by 70 Million people in the world, in:
Details of each country's market:
eBusiness in France Economy - overview: France's economy combines modern capitalistic methods with extensive, but declining, government intervention. The government retains considerable influence over key segments of each sector, with majority ownership of railway, electricity, aircraft, and telecommunication firms. It has been gradually relaxing its control over these sectors since the early 1990s. The government is slowly selling off holdings in France Telecom, in Air France, and in the insurance, banking, and defense industries. Meanwhile, large tracts of fertile land, the application of modern technology, and subsidies have combined to make France the leading agricultural producer in Western Europe. Persistently high unemployment will continue to pose a major problem for the government; a 35-hour work week has being instituted. France has shied away from cutting exceptionally generous social welfare benefits or the enormous state bureaucracy, preferring to pare defense spending and raise taxes to keep the deficit down. France joined 10 other EU members to launch the euro on 1 January 1999 (the euro will be appear officially in Feb., 2002).
Population of France - 59.3 million (2000 est.) Language: France is only one of several French-speaking countries. If a Website wants to reach French-speakers, it will also reach them in Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Quebec, as well as in some former French colonies in Africa, the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean. For companies buying from France, following are the industries that are most exported to France: - commodities: machinery and transportation equipment, chemicals, iron and steel products; agricultural products, textiles and clothing For companies buying from France, following are the industries that are most imported from France: commodities: crude oil, machinery and equipment, chemicals; agricultural products, luxury products. The Internet in France: France had a bad start when people starting signing online to the Internet. Granted, it has the imminent privilege of being the only country that has been selling online since 1980. But the enemy was inside: the long-standing (since 1980) Minitel, a teletext system that did much of what the Web does for us today. The post office gave out free terminals for every phone line, and the Minitel became such an important standard (18 M users in France, vs. only 10 M for Internet) that Minitel sites still bring in $2 B of yearly income to France Telecom even now. Many people still do not see why they should learn to use a computer: they get everything they need from the Minitel, and they don't seem to mind paying the access fee (around $0.30/minute). Sales through the Minitel in 1999 were $1.7 B, vs. $300 M for the Internet. Transactions are totally secured, since the Minitel acts as a huge Intranet on the national scale, using X.25 protocol. The Minitel's 18 million users have gotten an early lesson in online communication. However, with these devices already in so many households, many French feel no reason to upgrade to the internet and incur the ISP and phone charges. Another factor for the under-utilisation of the Internet in France is language. The Minitel's content is 100% French, but the web's content is 75% English, 3% French. While 30% of French citizens speak English, according to a recent Eurobarometer study, speaking a language is quite different from surfing in it. People naturally prefer to surf in their own language, unless they have a real reason to surf in English (for work research, better prices, etc.) To increase the intensity of French Internet use, sites that offer French as an option are a must. Nevertheless, the French Internet population grew 47% from 1999 to 2000 (higher growth than other European countries) and now stands at 10.9 M people (source: Nielsen/NetRatings). There are only an estimated 10.9 M Internet users now in France (an 18% penetration rate), well behind rates in the US, the UK, the Netherlands and Germany. Acceptance rates of ecommerce were not high: some 850,000 French people had bought online before April, 2000 (one-third of the numbers in England or Germany). According to consultants at Benchmark Group, the number of e- commerce sites in France is growing at a fast pace. France had a total of 1,200 online e-commerce sites by year-end 1999, two-thirds of which generated turnover of more than $30,000 a month. E-commerce offerings range from supermarket goods to travel, insurance and banking. Retail sales over the Internet in 1998 were estimated at between FFr500m-FFr1bn. This is still far less than sales of $1.1 B via France’s Minitel terminals. The French banking sector, after a slow start, is now adopting Internet strategies. Most of the country’s major banks provide a range of services online to business and individuals. As yet, however, the number of clients that carry out transactions online is relatively small. For example, BNP-Paribas’ BNP NET currently claims 100,000 clients. Bank officials would like to see that number grow to 1m-1.5m Internet customers by 2002. Brokerage companies have not had the slightest difficulty encouraging clients to use their online services, with online trading growing rapidly in the past 12 months. Business-to-business (B2B) activity was estimated at about ten times the scale of business-to-consumer sales in 1999, according to a study by the Benchmark Group. A recent study of the Internet habits of France’s 60 biggest companies, carried out by the Club Informatique des Grandes Enterprises Francaises (CIGREF), found that 60% had invested around $700 K in e-commerce, 34% between $ 0.7-7 M and 6% more than $7 M.
Meanwhile supermarket giant Carrefour is participating in a online exchange for the retail industry, GlobalNetExchange, in conjunction with giant retailer Sears (US) and J. Sainsbury (UK).
Future potential: Key market players and competitive environment: Several e-commerce ventures are reporting healthy online sales. Travel company Degriftour estimated it generated turnover of $35 M in 1999, while retail group Pinault Printemps Redoute reported online sales of $14 M in 1999. Rail operator SNCF, which launched its site in June 1999, generated reservation sales in 2000 of $88 M, and represents the number one ecommerce site in France. French consumers, like their US counterparts, seem to be hooked on online auctions. According to a survey conducted by consulting firm Netvalue, auction site ibazar was among the most visited French e- commerce sites as of February 2000. (information taken from eBusiness Forum.)
Most popular sites:
Reading material (eBusiness news, if you read French):
Net Economie Letter du Marketing eMarket Newsletter (has English version) 01 Net (important IT publication that has lots of articles about eBusiness) NewBiz (on the New Economy in France) Le Nouvel Hebdo (on the New Economy in France) L'Atelier (excellent online newsletter about French eBusiness news) You might be interested in our chart of global online populations, to see which languages and countries are online. This page is maintained by Global Reach, a marketing communications consultancy that assists clients attract Website visitors worldwide: from Europe, Japan, Latin America, Australia, S. Africa, China and Russia. |
