9 things you didn’t know about France and #digital technology

European champion in E-Government, the land of Wi-Fi and online courses (the famous ‘MOOC’): discover the figures which disprove generally accepted ideas about digital technology in France

1. FRANCE IS THE EUROPEAN CHAMPION IN E-GOVERNMENT

So says a recent United Nations study. France has become the leader in the European ranking and comes in fourth place in the global ranking based on three criteria: online services provided by the authorities, telecommunications infrastructure and population’s education level. France is the world champion for online services mainly thanks to the service-public.fr website.

2. FRANCE IS THE LAND OF WIFI

France is also the land of WiFi. According to the statistics drawn up by the specialist firm Maravedis Rethink, France is well ahead of the United States (9.58 million terminals) with more than 13 million public terminals. And that is not all: France is due to increase its number of terminals by 80% by 2018.

3. FRANCE IS AT THE CUTTING EDGE OF BIG DATA

This is what reveals a study conducted by Teradata on more than 300 French, German and British companies. France is running neck and neck with Germany far ahead of the United Kingdom. According to this study, three French companies out of five use advanced analytical processing to improve their efficiency and save time. Big data maturity is mainly due to the quality of French engineers’ training in mathematics and statistics. France is ranked second for the number of Fields medals!

4. FRANCE PROVIDES ONLINE COURSES

In the space of one year, 400,000 students, employees and people wishing to widen their knowledge have taken or are taking 53 MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) on the French Digital University (FUN - France Université Numérique) website in very diverse fields. The catalogue is continuing to expand: 23 new MOOCs have been made available since the start of the new academic year in September 2014. So the first anniversary of “FUN” can be celebrated with pride.

5. FRANCE IS CONNECTED

83% of French people use the Internet compared with the European average of 75% according to the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Research (Insee) in 2012. Mobile internet is on a roll: almost 40% of people were using mobile Internet in 2012 compared to only 10% in 2007.

6. FRANCE “LIKES” SOCIAL NETWORKS

French people are also very active on social networks. According to a study conducted by the We Are Social agency, Facebook has 28 million active users in France, which represents 42% of French people. Let's “like” this!

7. DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY HAS AN IMPACT ON THE ECONOMY…

Digital technology currently represents 5.5% of French GDP. According to a recent study from McKinsey firm, France may increase the share represented by digital technology in its GDP by €100 billion by 2020, provided that companies noticeably speed up their digital transformation.

8. … AND CREATES JOBS!

According to the same study, direct jobs linked to this sector account for 3.3% of salaried employees nationwide. However, efforts still need to be made to fully benefit from the potential of this revolution impacting practices and services. “The Government is taking decisive and intentional action to this end” highlighted Axelle Lemaire. For more information

9. FRANCE ENCOURAGES CROWDFUNDING (AND IT WORKS!)

152 million euros were raised in 2014 thanks to crowdfunding platforms that enable Internet users to fund projects directly. This figure is twice the amount raised in 2013, according to the study carried out by Compinnov for the association Financement Participatif France ('French Crowdfunding Association') among 46 French platforms. The amount consists primarily of loans (88.4 million euros), the majority of which are interest-bearing, but donation platforms rank in second place with a total of 38.2 million euros raised, followed by crowd equity platforms, which enable the donor to acquire shares in a small company, accounting for 25.4 million euros raised. In its attempts to strengthen France's position on the international stage, the Government has made a number of changes to the applicable regulations, including an ordinance, which came into force last October 1st, designed to eliminate the bank monopoly on interest-bearing loans, thus enabling individuals to fund projects by lending money in return for interest (up to a maximum 1,000 euros per investor and 1,000,000 euros per project).