Position Paper #2 International Media Trends

Leading Innovations in France

    Innovations in the U.S. are always remarkable to find. the U.S. has some of the most prestigious developers to create unique and fresh innovations like never before. We know as well as anyone that the U.S. has come a long way from creating excellent innovations in recent years, but what about outside the U.S. Have the countries outside the  U.S. made any progress in developing new ground-breaking innovations? Well let's find out. When choosing a country to find innovations have progressed, I wanted to do a country no one has heard about in a while. 

    The country I chose was France. France, in Western Europe, encompasses medieval cities, alpine villages and Mediterranean beaches. Paris, its capital, is famed for its fashion houses, classical art museums including the Louvre and monuments like the Eiffel Tower. The country is also renowned for its wines and sophisticated cuisine. Lascaux’s ancient cave drawings, Lyon’s Roman theater and the vast Palace of Versailles attest to its rich history (France Wiki).  In recent years, I have not heard much news about France's advanced innovations or any news for that matter. Most people know France by it being the city of love or how many fashion brands originated from there. Let's dive into the leading innovations in France. The first innovation in France that is leading this year influences and helps young children. The innovation is called Bookinou. Bookinou‘s mission is to accompany children in the discovery of reading. Bookinou is a screenless audio storyteller that tells 3-7 years old children the audio story of EVERY book with a loved one’s voice. The company is also developing content and services for families and schools. Bookinou is a great innovation that provides learning for children that love to read books. This innovation helps children enjoy reading even more because it is read by someone they love. 

    This next innovation is leading in the  medical industry to help diagnose those with undetected medical conditions. Founded in 2014, Bioserenity develops connected medical solutions to help diagnose and monitor patients with chronic diseases in cardiology, neurology, sleep disorders, urology, and pregnancy. In January 2021, Bioserenity announced it had received U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance for its Neuronaute electroencephalogram (EEG) system and IceCap EEG wearable device. The Neuronaute system assists healthcare professionals in the diagnosis, monitoring and assessment of epilepsy and other neurological disorders in adult patients. It consists of hardware and software that acquires, displays, stores, archives, and transmits EEG signals from the brain using a full 10-20 montage. Remote access is facilitated via the Neuronaute N-CLOUD which receives EEG signals from the Neuronaute Head Module which then transmits to the cloud. Bioserenity is based in the Brain and Spine institute in Paris, with whom the company shares a common laboratory around artificial intelligence and digital biomarkers’ detection (Bioserenity). 

    Food innovations are also big in France. France is known for gourmet foods, snacks, and drinks. These new snacks will help promote a healthy lifestyle. Salakis Croque & Burger slices are made with 100% ewe's milk and are said to give a delicious Mediterranean touch to sandwiches and burgers, whether hot or cold. In 2015, off the back of the rising popularity of premium burgers in foodservice, numerous brands in retail have launched cheese designed to feature in a burger (Mintel). 

     Another food innovation popular in France is Lipton Grapefruit & Mandarin Green Tea Capsule. A quarter of French consumers currently use tea pods, and France is a key market for these capsules. Mintel research shows that the French have the highest penetration of coffee pods among Europe’s major continental markets. Lipton Grapefruit & Mandarin Green Tea Capsules are especially designed for the Nespresso range of coffee machines and are said to preserve the perfume of the tea for intense pleasure at each cup (Mintel). Another leading innovation in France also involved sports. These sports companies provide services to their consumers to push the envelope of developing sports corporations. PIQ is a leader in robotic sports. This startup founded in 2015 has changed the definition of connected sports. PIQ analyses your game and provides you with the winning factor. This company’s ultra-powerful super sensor called PIQ-Robot provides a connected sports system, outstanding visualizations of your movements and more letting you achieve unbeatable performance. The PIQ app provides content including your scoreboard. 

Kazaden founded in 2014 is one of the world’s first websites providing activities and exceptional outdoor stays. The site includes the most exciting sporting stays and activities in France and abroad. It allows both individuals and businesses to find a simple and fun sporting adventure that meets their expectations precisely including surfing, cruises, multi-activity holidays and more. 

 

Last but not least, I wanted to showcase France's leading startups. The first one is Blablacar. BlaBlaCar is a French online marketplace for carpooling. Its website and mobile apps connect drivers and passengers willing to travel together between cities and share the cost of the journey and  trusted members in 22 countries, BlaBlaCar is the largest long-distance carpooling community in the world. Now offering coach travel and short-distance carpooling, BlaBlaCar has the ambition to become the go-to-place for shared mobility. Created in 2007. Was part of the Next40 in 2020 (Sifted). 

Next is innovation that involves photos. Meero is an on-demand photography company headquartered in Paris. The company was founded in 2014 by Thomas Rebaud and Guillaume Lestrade. Meero uses AI and ML algorithms to streamline photo editing, while also acting as a marketplace of photographers around the world. Meero brings top-name brands directly to image creators while expediting all of the tedious work. From its state-of-the-art image editing technology to our teams positioned around the world, Meero wants to help creators do what they do best: create (Sifted). 

Frichti is a French home meal delivery company created in 2015 by Julia Bijaoui and Quentin Vacher. Frichti’s mission is to make eating well possible on a daily basis. In addition to its historic activity of making ready-made meals, in summer 2018 it launched a ‘Super Market’ which offers around 1k references of raw products (fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, groceries, etc.) (Sifted).