IT landscape in France
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Computing and Internet diffusion

Compared to other European countries, France is behind in terms of computing and Internet diffusion. The governement has recently undertaken action to promote the Internet but several factors still slow penetration.
 

Penetration rates

PC equipment rate  1997 2000
France 22 % 33 %
Europe (average) 29 % 40 %
US 47 % 62 %
Source: Jupiter MMX/INSEE

At the beginning of 2001, 33% of households have a PC at home and 20% have Internet access. The growth rate of Internet penetration is higher than the European average but France is catching up its slow development. Indeed, Internet penetration rates are 41 % in UK, 27 % in Germany and 23 % in Italy.
Since 1999,  Internet access is growing rapidly in the French market, with a 23% growth in the first quarter of 2001 for domestic access.
Free Internet access has driven the development of home Internet access in 1999 and 2000, but has now given place to package offers with subscription and fixed hours of connection more adapted to different users segments.
 

59.7% of professional PCs have Internet access. 59% of all Internet connections are professional.
 
% of companies using Internet 
(March 2001)		 Paris and region France
SME 57 % 39 %
Large companies 98 % 92 %
Source: Journal du Net
  Despite an increase in Internet connections in 1999 and 2001, France is still behind major European countries. What is worrying is that people intending to acquire Internet connection represent only 6% and that half the French population has no intention of ever being connected! Indeed, aged and less educated categories are not motivated by the Internet, and to a lesser extent women and lower income categories. The reasons most often invoked are that they "do not see the Internet as useful", they "do not own a PC" and they think that Internet is too costly and too difficult to use. There are indeed both cultural and economic constraints.
(source SESSI, Le 4 pages, August 2001)
A crucial factor that could explain France specific position regarding Internet penetration is the existence of Minitel. The Minitel network was created and operated by France Telecom in the late 70's. Minitel is text only and its terminal are dumb. But Minitel was a huge sucess in France, over 6 millions terminal nationwide. This success might explain why France Telecom has been slower to adopt Internet standards or to offer low-cost points of presence (POP).
Also, Minitel is a very secure network and is anonymous by design. There is a garanty of privacy written into the contracts that all service providers for Minitel must sign.
France Telecom stated that 63% of its Internet users are also Minitel subscribers. Indeed, Minitel was until recently faster for purely text-based research. However, Minitel is not able to carry photos, graphics or animations. The French experience with Minitel and the fact that Minitel has continued to be upgraded and improved suggest that subscribers are not just interested in one format, but many. Content providers are now looking to deliver information to devices as diverse as mobile phones and game machines. Analog access is the main technology used with 47.3 % of Internet connections, but DSL is developing while cable and satellite accesses remain anecdotal. 3 % of of the population has high-speed Internet access (first semester 2001).
Growth is likely to be boosted by the launching of GPRS on PDA's and Interent connections on game stations, Web TV and Set top box. The market has started to stabilize in 2000 after an anarchic growth in 1999. Free Internet access and strong competition between ISPs has lead to decreasing quality in service offering and financial difficulty for small providers. The major providers are strengthening their position. Wanadoo (France Telecom) and Oleane have increased their market share to 36 % in home market and profesionnal market respectively. Cegetel group has increased its position thanks to AOL-Compuserve progression. With Uunet (Worldcom), Colt, Club-Internet (Deutsche Telecom) and Infonie, those large players account for 80 % of Internet connections.
At the end of 2000, 38% of home Internet users had free access with paying communication time, and 37 % had a package including subscription and a certain number of communication hours.
 

Profile of Internet users
 
October 2000 September 2001
High income (CSP +) 63 % 59.5 %
College education 61 % 49 %
Male 65 % 64 %
Female 35 % 36 %
Source: Jupiter MMXI
 

A study conducted by France Telecom/Net value in 2000 shows that 15 % of Internet users have never used a search engine, and only 20 % of Web browsing sessions include a search. Half of Internet users have visited at least once an e-commerce site proposing travel services or cultural products.

Reasons for using Internet at home
Information 84 %
E-mails 79 %
E-commerce 22 %
Chats, discussion boards 18 %
Games 17 %
Others 4 %
Source: Taylor Nelson/Sofres, November 2000

Frequency
Pages viewed per month Home Office Other places
Everyday 52 % 45 % 8 %
More than once a month 44 % 47 % 65 %
Less than once a month 4 % 8 % 27 %
Total 100% 100% 100%

Major portals
Portals (home usage) Unique visitors (thousands) Coverage
Wanadoo.fr 5694 55.1 %
Free.fr 4565 44.1 %
Voila.fr 3887 37.6 %
Tiscali 3690 35.7 %
Multimania.fr 3622 35 %
Yahoo.fr 3531 34.1 %
Lycos.fr 3483 33.7 %
Msn.fr 3227 31.2 %
Yahoo.com 2794 27 %
Club-internet.fr 2136 20.7 %
Source: Net Value, October 2001


Sources

Journal du Net

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