Post date: May 23, 2011 2:21:0 PM
For the next two days Paris will be the centre of the technology world as entrepreneurs and executives converge for the first ever e-G8 summit, but the city has a burgeoning tech scene of its own.
PARIS, FRANCE (MAY 19, 2011) REUTERS - Top entrepreneurs and executives from the technology world are converging on Paris starting Tuesday (May 24) for two days of talks at the first-ever 'e-G8 summit' convened by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, ahead of the regular G8 gathering on May 27-28 in the French seaside resort of Deauville.
The gathering of tech titans including Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Google's Eric Schmidt and Amazon's
Jeff Bezos is being characterized as a clash of cultures - the online disruptors in the land of regulations and long lunches.
However, the busy midday scene at the Paris offices of MXP4 illustrates that startups don't necessarily need to be based in Silicon Valley to follow examples set in the world's technology capital.
MXP4 is currently undergoing a big shift in focus, said CEO Albin Serviant.
"MXP4 used to develop an interactive audio format with the vision that in the future people would play with their music instead of just playing their music," said Serviant. "But in terms of artist adoption, of product development, it was not up to our expectations. Basically, it failed. And then we had to iterate."
MXP4 is now focussing on building new music-driven 'social games' for Facebook which will soon be launched under the new brand 'Bopler Games'.
The move to divert resources from one project that's underperforming to another that shows greater promise is a classic technique from the Silicon Valley school of technology entrepreneurship.
The founder of MXP4 is a French serial entrepreneur named Gilles Babinet who has built several innovative technology businesses, of which some have proved very lucrative. Serviant and Babinet previously worked together at Musiwave, Babinet's company that sold for $140 million in 2006. He said the French tech scene has come a long way in recent years.
"There is a complete sea-change. It didn't exist only 10 years ago. It was completely underground and (now) it's completely different and that's good, " he said.
Babinet was recently elected as the first president of Conseil National du Numerique, a new body representing France's digital startup sector which advises the government on the digital economy.
He will participate in the e-G8 Summit and said it represents an important opportunity for technology executives to influence lawmakers on the tricky topic of regulation.
"There is a real concern that some governments (could) announce massive initiatives into regulation. The people from the internet believe it's been efficient so far because it wasn't regulated," he said.
Back at MXP4, Serviant pointed out that the international reach of online platforms such as Facebook means that companies such as his can afford to be much more outward looking.
"We are a startup based in Paris. Our R&D team is based in Paris. Most of our engineers are based in Paris but I'm spending most of my time abroad. Facebook is my country," he said.
That view presents an interesting talking point for French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg when they meet in Paris over the next couple of days.