La French Tech – A look at the French tech media landscape

France is a European leader in deep tech and advocate of AI global ethics. The world’s largest startup hub, Station F, is in Paris. The French government recently announced a €4 billion support plan for startups. As a nation, it is number 10 on the Global Entrepreneurial Index.

With this in mind, we are going to go through the most renowned publications that cover the world of French technology, startups and entrepreneurial happenings, so you can gain insight into which titles are worth following and targeting with a pan-European PR strategy.

FrenchWeb

FrenchWeb is a publication that focusses on startups, and funnily enough, French tech. It compiles a yearly report, the highly regarded ‘FW 500’ – a ranking of tech businesses representing the Tricolore. The compendium has been going for five years now and covers the deluge of software publishers, HealthTech, AgTech, eCommerce, FinTech and EdTech pioneers the country has to offer.

More in-depth than simply news articles and updates, FrenchWeb also delivers white papers, webinars and lengthy interviews to get under the skin of the latest trends. It places a particular focus on fundraising for new technology innovations, be it from investors or government support, something that is especially crucial in the wake of Covid-19 in order to stimulate economic recovery.

L’Usine Digitale

The title of L’Usine Digitale literally translates into English as ‘The Digital Factory’. It’s an appropriate name for a media outlet that specialises on up-and-coming digital transformation. As companies evolve and advance, this is a great place to glean a French perspective.

Three main categories of articles that L’Usine Digitale likes to curate are digital retail, cities of the future and food tech. Of course, the main news stories about Apple and Amazon are present and correct, but these additional categories help differentiate it somewhat from other tech websites.

Maddyness

This publication calls itself ‘the magazine of French startups’ and far be it for us to disagree. New businesses are its raison d’être, the number one resource in France for this sector. It has also spawned a UK-based, English language, version.

Founded in 2012 as a hotbed of French innovation and entrepreneurship, the aim is to provide readers with a taste of the future. Such exciting glimpses of what business could be like over the next five, 10 or 20 years is what makes Maddyness essential reading. This sits alongside an extensive startup business directory, a daily email newsletter and the Maddyshop – which sells The Backpack, a book that covers the essentials for startups.

Les Echos Start and Entrepreneurs

Being the first daily French financial newspaper, founded way back in 1908, you can think of Les Echos as a rival – in content if not location or language – to the Financial Times. It has 24/7 news updates about the French economy, global changes, finance and politics.

But there are also two spin-off websites. Les Echos Start, focussing on innovation and startups, followed by Les Echos Entrepreneurs, a title covering the people behind the next big thing.

With over 15 million monthly visitors to Les Echos, having dedicated sections and journalists covering technology only goes to show the importance of the sector within France.

Wydden

We conclude our journey through the French tech landscape by looking at Wydden. Not ‘another tech news website’, the volume of articles, podcasts and interviews mean that it’s more of a resource hub than a news website.

People visit to learn, whether that is business leaders or employees, helping accelerate tech businesses on topics such as digital marketing or growth hacking. Wydden has evolved over the years to become the number one online centre for French startups wanting to find a path to success. With over 1,500 resources and an informative weekly newsletter, it’s worthwhile for tech companies to pay it a visit.

As you can see, not only is the coverage of tech news widespread across France, but the number of places people can visit to learn, grow and enhance their chances of successes is vast. Such detailed, opinionated and extensive reporting creates a platform for tech advancement that we can now see developing across France. Vive la technologie!