Loïc Le Meur

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Loïc Le Meur (born July 14, 1972) is a French serial entrepreneur and blogger. He served as Executive Vice President EMEA at software company Six Apart after merging French blogging company Ublog with Six Apart in July 2004.[1] In late 2006 Le Meur became a public backer of French presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy and joined Sarkozy's campaign team as an advisor on Internet-related topics.[2][3]

Contents

[edit] Career

In 1996, Loic Le Meur founded his first company, interactive agency B2L, which was sold to advertising agency BBDO in 1999 for an undisclosed sum.

In parallel he also founded RapidSite France and made it the leading web hosting company for small businesses in France.[4] In 1999, he sold RapidSite to France Télécom where it became part of Wanadoo.[5]

In 2000, he founded application service provider Tekora and sold the company to French software company Access-Commerce in 2002.[citation needed]

In 2003, he got involved with French weblog hosting company Ublog which he purchased from its founder Stéphane Le Solliec in October 2003.[6] He then grew Ublog and merged the company with Six Apart where he became Executive Vice President in 2004.[7] He held his role as EVP EMEA until March 2007 when he handed his job over to long-time business partner Olivier Creiche. Le Meur remains Honorary Chair of Six Apart Europe. [8]

[edit] Blogging

Le Meur's personal weblog has been one of the most widely read blogs in France. He is also well-known as the organizer of the LesBlogs weblog conferences in Paris, France (later renamed to LeWeb).[9] In 2004, he became part of the team behind the official World Economic Forum Weblog.[10]

In December 2005, he conducted the first podcast interview with a major French politician, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy.[11] While AgoraVox, a French citizen journalism site, panned the interview as "infotainment", claiming Le Meur had asked "softball questions" and critizized the podcasst interview as free publicity for Sarkozy,[12] Le Meur responded that he didn't want to be confrontational, and the event was seen as an effort to stem Sarkozy's decline in popularity among younger voters.[13] Le Meur then went on interviewing several other politicians in subsequent podcasts, including Dominique Strauss-Kahn and François Bayrou. He announced his support for Sarkozy in the 2007 presidential election in September 2006.[14] Both Bayrou and Sarkozy spoke at internet conference LeWeb3 in Paris organized by Le Meur in December 2006, as did Israeli politician Shimon Peres.[15]

[edit] Controversies

Loic Le Meur did not create the Ublog service (then sold to Six Apart) as often mentioned. The Ublog service and technology was acquired from its founder and lead developer Stephane Le Solliec and then incorporated by Le Meur. He then marketed himeself as a visionary, always inspired by Joi Ito, whom he met during the Davos YLT conference in 2002.[dubious — see talk page]

Le Meur was blamed by some in the global blogosphere for "hijacking" (term used by the BBC blog and other bloggers:http://www.britishblogs.co.uk/categories/leweb3/) the 1,000-person conference he organized in Paris, Le Web3 (2006), by inviting his Presidential choice, Nicolas Sarkozy, to give a 15 minute speech that included no exchange with the audience. Another presidential contender, the centrist Francois Bayrou, also spoke at the conference (taking questions), giving bloggers a first-hand look at all but the Socialist candidate for the French presidency.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Blogs pour les pros by Loïc Le Meur and Laurence Beauvais, Dunod ISBN 2100493957, November 2005
  • La révolution podcast by Loïc Le Meur and Laurence Beauvais, Dunod ISBN 2100500597, September 2006.

[edit] References

  1. ^ July 14, 2004 eWeek - Six Apart Hires New CEO, Nets European Bloggers
  2. ^ Nicolas Sarkozy's Campaign Team
  3. ^ January 15, 2007, Guardian Unlimited - For France's bloggers, c'est la guerre
  4. ^ April 15, 2005 01.net - Interview with Loïc Le Meur
  5. ^ December 22, 1999 internetnews.com - France Telecom Acquires RapidSite France
  6. ^ November 25, 2003 Le Journal du Net - Ublog, l'aventure blog de Loïc Le Meur
  7. ^ July 15, 2004 internetnews.com - Six Apart Blogs in Europe
  8. ^ March 27, 2007 Loic Le Meur Weblog - After Six Apart, what should I do?
  9. ^ LeWeb3 conference website
  10. ^ Forumblog.org
  11. ^ Le Meur, Loïc. "Nicolas Sarkozy podcasté pour la première fois". 22 December 2005.
  12. ^ AgoraVox. "Sarkozy sur mon iPod ? Non merci !" 24 December 2005
  13. ^ Matlack, Carol. "The Podcast Shaking Up French Politics". BusinessWeek, December 27, 2005.
  14. ^ Le Meur, Loïc. "Je voterai pour Niclas Sarkozy". 10 September 2006.
  15. ^ Schenker, Jennifer L. "Politicians Woo Internet Crowd In Paris". Red Herring, December 12, 2006.

[edit] External links

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