France Telecom announces the acquisition of Cityvox
Paris, March 05, 2008
This acquisition of 100% of the compagny is in line with Orange's strategy to
develop its internet services and the audience on its portals, consolidating its
current position in France as number three for audience and number one for advertising
on the web(1).
Cityvox, a leading outings and leisure site Founded in 1999 by Bertrand Bigay and Michel Athenour, Cityvox SAS is one of
the leading internet media groups, number one in France for local sites and a
specialist in online outings and leisure news.
The www.Cityvox .fr, www.cinefil.com, www.concerts.fr and www.spectacles.fr sites
attract over 2.2 million unique visitors each month and more than 350,000 regular
contributors. In just a few years, with a profitable business model, Cityvox has
established itself on the French market as the benchmark for outings and leisure
activities (restaurants, cinema, bars, concerts, hotels).
For several years now, France Telecom has been entrusting Cityvox with managing
the “in town” section on the orange.fr site. For its part, Cityvox has been working
with Orange Publicité since 2002 for marketing its advertising space.
Developing business on the local services and advertising market With more than 58 million unique visitors around the world each month, including
17 million in France(2), the audience for Orange's services and the performance
of its advertising agency will enable Cityvox’s know-how and expertise to come
into their own for the development of local services.
Orange’s new ambition with Cityvox covers various aspects:
- further strengthening Orange's positioning on local content and developing new
local services, notably on mobility
- offering local advertisers a better presence on digital media and generating
more advertising revenues
- ramping up Cityvox’s model at international level, drawing on Orange's worldwide
presence...