l'Espace Vivendi Sneaking into the House of the Giant
by: Veronica Endo
One of the first things I do after crossing a border is to look for a cyber-cafe and spend at least an hour in it reporting my first experiences, as if I was afraid of getting lost in the distance. I need to feel that there is still somebody who knows I am somewhere. This urge is probably related to the feeling of being detached from my own country, family and friends and the process of finding other countries, families and friends. How do you keep in touch with your memories?
My way is to email with the people I have met. This time Paris, City of
Lights, received me in its rainy autumn.
After visiting a couple of cafes and museums, and getting lost in
beautiful streets like every foreigner in Paris, I started to miss my
virtual neighborhood and tried to find out how I could get plugged into
the Internet. Not one of my French friends knew where I could go.
(Wanadoo, Netup, Libertysurf, Noos and others provide low-enough rates
for Internet access to keep locals out of cyber-cafes.) After my
unsuccessful research among Parisians, I decided to use my own logic
and went to look for my cyber dose near the universities or the big
international schools. Close to La Sorbonne, along the student's area
of Boulevard Saint Michel, I discovered three cyber stations separated
by a distance of 20 meters. I found that these are mostly frequented
by foreign students of all ages but I cannot understand how they can
afford the prices--even with a student discount the best I could get
was 30 francs (US$4) per hour.
Inside the recently published Gratis Web Magazine, the first
Parisian free Internet magazine, I got the addresses of several
Internet cafes so I could combine sightseeing and surfing.
I understood the reason why they were not so popular. It costs
much more compared to other big cities in Europe where there are
cyber stations on every other corner (In Frankfurt you can even
find them in the malls between the video games).
Later on I heard about a place where, by miracle, you could
have free access to the net for a limited time (20 minutes per day)
just beside all the classy shops and streets around the Champs Elysees.
Next day I was at the end of a long queue, wet to the bones because of
the stubborn Parisian rain, talking to other non-Parisians who, like me,
did not understand who the place belonged to or how long the service would
be available. One thing we knew: it was worth waiting.
The cyber-cafe is called l'Espace Vivendi. It is placed in the ground
floor of a nice building that occupies the corner of Tilsitt Street, Friedland
Avenue and Hoche Avenue just beside Charles de Gaulle metro station. It is
difficult to understand its purpose. There are 74 PCs placed in three sections
connected to the Internet and working Monday to Saturday from 9am to 7pm. Video
monitors are standing among the computers and a big screen is placed on one
side of the main hall. They constantly show images of environmental care and
communications. A permanent book and CD-ROM exhibit of a publishing house
occupies a part of the central hall; a mobile phone shop is located at one of
the entrances and a Columbus Cafe stands in the middle of everything.
What is their relation?
The queue was long but cheerful and
in many languages we were surprised to see how soon we were already filling in a
form. Then finally, I was posted to PC number 72. According to the rules, I had
to give notice to the person occupying "my place" that his time was over.
A man peacefully stopped chatting in Chinese so I could take my turn.
I noticed that l'Espace Vivendi was run by a young, nice and gentle staff speaking
mostly in English, Spanish and Italian. I started to be a frequent visitor but I
still could not understand how or why it worked for free in such a nice environment.
So, I tried to satiate my curiosity by talking to Vivendi's staff. I learned from
Arnaud Gauthier, the charming Manager and Chief of Internet Services, that I had been
visiting the exhibition center of one of the biggest holding companies in France,
Group Vivendi Universal. The Group is the result of the recent merger between
Seagram and Canal+.
He said that one and a half years ago the place was a quiet exhibition center
located in the building owned by Vivendi. It had 16 PCs connected to the web, the
mobile phone shop of Cegetel, an office for individual shareholders and a conference
hall reserved for private environmental exhibits.
Their image started to change with an initial interest in elevating the brand's
awareness. They decided to start with implementing 35 PCs to give services to schools
and also job research opportunities and advice to the unemployed. Jean-Marie Messier,
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the group since 1994, wanted to reflect the
name of the Group Vivendi, which means vivacity and mobility. With this campaign,
the number of activities grew and l'Espace Vivendi became so busy, with a variety of
projects so big and different, that it was necessary to take a break to restructure
and reorganize the place.
They reopened after a month with the dynamic, lively atmosphere we find today.
There are co-existing spaces that represent the new Vivendi Universal Communications,
including:
Havas, one of the biggest publishing and editing firms in France which also sells
multimedia, and operates in 40 countries covering the areas of information, education,
knowledge and entertainment.
Cegetel, the leading private telecommunications operator in France.
VivendiNet,
owned by Vivendi and Canal+ (European leader in pay TV and digital television),
combining all Internet activities of Vivendi Communications, and Columbus Cafe, which
rents a space to bring together the ambience of a cyber-cafe.
The screens are used for private or public conferences (mostly environmental) of
the Group. Advertising is also a right limited to members only. A quiet and comfortable
corner is reserved for Vivendi Shareholder's Club with computers, magazines and permanent
assistance for club members (715,000 in 1999).
What else?
There is more inside Vivendi Universal Communications and
even much more inside the Group Vivendi Universal. When I started asking I always found
something else behind Vivendi's name. Their objective is, as Philipe Germond, Senior
Executive Vice President says, to offer rich online content and services. They already
have a simultaneous presence in French mobile telephony, digital and pay television and
off-and-online publishing.
MAP
is the company created by Canal+, Cegetel and AirTouch to develop Europe's first multi-access portal
which already has the largest European customer base and will give access to the Internet via
television, computer or mobile phone.
WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), through Vizzavi.fr, another member of Vivendi, is
one of the sponsors of Vendee Globe (www.vendeeglobe.com),
a project that has successfully taken place four times in the last eleven years. It is a
unique around the world race with 22 boats sailing non-stop, single-handed and without
assistance. Video monitors and online communication services are smartly arranged in
one of Cafe Vivendi's computer areas to follow the cruise. They are reachable anytime
on the net and their website joins information on the cruise with games and chat forums.
This is one of Vivendi's ways to promote their versatile image.
Nomad Community is another of Vivendi's adventures, a project in the same spirit as
vendeeglobe.com. It was elaborated by two young men, Matteo Penach from Italy and
Alexander de Boncour from France with a budget of 500,000 francs (US$70,000). Their
plan, as Boncour said in an interview, is to make a tour around the interactive world
open to everyone. How? First, they created the website www.nomadcommunity.com and
through it they let netters vote to choose the route of the trip. The next phase
starts December 4th and covers South Africa, Australia and Indonesia. Internet
surfers can either join the group at any point of their route or follow the team
online through videos, photos and chat.
And still, the Group Vivendi is more than Vivendi Communications. The story
began in 1853 with Compagnie General des Eaux, a public limited company which at
the time dealt with irrigation to help farming and with supplying water to towns
and cities in France. Fifty years ago they started to work in water treatment,
district heating networks, household waste incineration and composing plants.
In 1983 they started to grow quickly when General des Eaux expanded to the
communications field, creating Canal+ in co-operation with Havas media group.
It became the first encrypted pay TV channel in France. After Canal+, Societe
Francaise de Radiotelephonie (SFR) was formed and meanwhile, in another field,
they became European leaders in the waste management market.
Only in 1998, under the direction of Jean-Marie Messier, did the group take
the name of Vivendi. It absorbed Havas and made an alliance with the Spanish
group FCC to accelerate Spanish-speaking markets in Europe and Latin America.
What is coming next?
Earlier this year, Vivendi decided to
withdraw from the construction and property fields to focus on communications
and environmental services, and Vivendi Environmental was established as a
separate company in July. Last year they took off to the United States with
the acquisitions of Superior Services and US Filter, which was the biggest
French operation overseas ever made. With this, the US becomes Vivendi's largest
market outside France.
Today, they want to be the service group of the 21st century while becoming
world leaders in environmental services and major players in communications. They
operate already in over 100 countries and have 134,000 employees outside France.
Among their brands are Vivendi Water (General des Eaux, US Filter), Onix, Connex,
Dalkia, Cegetel (SFR, Le 7), Havas, Canal+, and VivendiNet. With the absorption
of Seagram, already dominant in media and entertainment through Universal Studios
and Universal Music, we are talking about the leadership of communications in the
world. Will they make it? For some, their amazing growth is hard to believe.
As the Vivendi/Universal merger project read, they want to build a consumer-focused,
performance-driven, values-based global media communications company. The aim is to
become the world's preferred provider of personalized information, entertainment and
services to consumers anywhere, at any time, and across all distribution platforms
and services. The idea seems to be reflecting a multicultural world free of time
and distance limitations. The fact is that now Vivendi's name is behind most of the
brands that are part of Parisians' everyday lives and the inviting cafe Vivendi
turned to be the back door to the house of a giant.
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