[bsaul]

There are three big french IT companies that "made it" in the last decade : dailymotion, criteo and blablacar ( with dailymotion now close to death). Criteo is making tons of money thanks to the huge ad business. But let me tell you a story about blablacar :

I was on a train to nantes last year, and heard two local politicians ( from green parties) talking together about environmental issues. As time passed on, i started talking to them, and we ended up talking about new transport systems. Well, one of them started mentionning blablacar, a site he used sometimes, and how it became a marketplace rather than a service company, and became philosophical about it, only to end to the conclusion that : the state should start regulating their activity.

I was dumbfounded. I had to tell him that users would go elsewhere if prices would start to go up too much, and basically explain to him the benefit of a free market.

This is not anecdotical. This is a cultural issue. Politicians are clueless about the basis of a sane economy.

[tarsinge]

"This is not anecdotical." yes it is, and badly biased as the green party in france is (nearly) extreme left-wing

"This is a cultural issue. Politicians are clueless about the basis of a sane economy." on the very thread about the minister of economy going to the CES and talking about the need of VC money

[bsaul]

mr macron is clearly not representative, he is an outsider and that's why he's so popular. As for going to CES, it is is one thing, but it's clearly not going to change anything.

Much more symptomatic was the scandal about the minister of work not knowing the conditions for a short term work contract when asked on TV, just two days after the reform of the work laws have been announced publicaly to be in the work.

[mackwic]

> with dailymotion now close to death

Not close to death, it's just not a unicorn. They can IPO whenever they want as long as they claim a correct valuation.