'technology' Category
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HTML5 is cross-platform
January 8, 2014One of my portfolio company CEOs sent me this graphic, which I believe best illustrates the true cross-platform nature of HTML5 for gaming.
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Happy 2014
January 7, 2014. . . . . Happy new year to all the readers of this blog. May 2014 be full of enjoyment and enlightenment ! I was recently solicited for my 2014 wishes for the French tech ecosystem. Here’s the answer I gave, and I encourage to read many other insightful and incisive new year’s wishes […]
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2013 landing on a good note
December 17, 2013Various topics have been tumbling around my brain about which to write in this last post of 2013 on France’s startup ecosystem. There’s the alarming passage of a wide-reaching French surveillance law, or yet another French fiscal flap like the Eckert proposal, and of course the depressing pronouncements by Arnaud Montebourg at LeWeb last week. […]
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Who wants my ticket to tomorrow’s party: The Other Night ?
December 9, 2013This might well be the hottest party during this year’s LeWeb conference. Sponsored by TheFamily and Rude Baguette, The Other Night promises to be a night tech entrepreneurs will never remember. And I cannot attend. So I’m giving away my ticket for free. Interested ? Contact me on Twitter @markbivens with your answer to the […]
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More on Line
November 28, 2013What a difference a month makes. Japanese chat app LINE has reportedly gained an additional 50 million users since I wrote Don’t Shoot the Messenger (App) last month. They haven’t officially embarked in France… yet.
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Maybe Local matters after all
November 6, 2013Two years ago I wrote a short blurb entitled, “Does Local Matter?” in which I provocatively questioned the future relevance of the Local network component in the overhyped buzzwords of Social / Local / Mobile. We even jumped on the bandwagon by launching a tax-optimizing holding vehicle called SoLoMoCo to focus on this fad. So […]
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Don’t shoot the messenger (app)
October 29, 2013In continuity of last week’s piece on the arrival the Japanese mobile game models to Europe, I thought it appropriate to discuss another tech trend in Asia which makes me enthusiastic for potential investment opportunities, even here on the old continent: the next-generation of mobile messaging apps. Most Europeans are familiar with WhatsApp, Viber, Kik, […]
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Japan to Europe: Game on ! (act 2)
October 22, 2013Fasten your seatbelts, because the European mobile games market is about to become a lot more interesting. Not that the market has been dormant. I can’t think of a recent ride on the Paris metro or London tube without witnessing someone playing Candy Crush or Clash of Clans. And now Candy Crush maker King.com is rumoured to […]
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A mESS in the diaper
October 8, 2013Regular readers of this blog know that I generally don’t do politics. I prefer to spend my waking hours helping my portfolio companies, and by extension, the French startup ecosystem in general. It is in this latter category that when I detect legislation that could seriously imperil our ecosystem, I feel an obligation to openly […]
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France’s new PEA-PME
September 3, 2013For tech startups in France, the September rentrée from summer holidays often seems to hold regulatory and fiscal surprises, certainly from the current government administration. This year is no exception, although the rumors are promisingly less detrimental than last year’s bombshell, when the new fiscal budget announced a debillitating capital gains tax regime. The flagship […]
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5 French startups I can’t live without
July 16, 2013You live by your tools, as the old saying goes. Of course, the corollary says that you can also die by your tools (MS Outlook comes to mind…). It’s a rare occasion that I find such a productivity enhancer that I adopt it for regular use. In the spirit of this past Sunday’s fête nationale, […]
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Tech Designers: Hurry over to London by July 10
June 25, 2013No, this is not an encouragement to would-be fiscal exiles or pigeons. Nor do I have any specific conference or startup networking event in mind as I write this. In fact, the reason has nothing to do with tech, at least not in a directly obvious way. It’s about an art exhibition. Specifically, Shiro Kuramata, […]