Life was indeed simpler in the 1980s when the French were a world leader in e-commerce with the proprietary Minitel system. While my more adventuresome friends frolicked on the Minitel "rose" (you know who you are) I got sufficient kicks ordering my train tickets at 3615SNCF (once a geek always a geek). While the Minitel system was indeed well ahead of its time it was the perfect Cartesian closed system for the French — electronic ordered but not too disruptive. When the World Wide Web spread in the 1990s France lagged behind due in part to the success of the closed Minitel system. This was not unlike Japan’s slower acceptance of GSM-based smartphones due to the great success of the i-mode phone system. When France belatedly joined the web generation it always appeared suspicious and reluctant — much as if it had concluded that www really stood for wild wild west.
I will skip the French Government’s earlier dirigiste efforts to build its own "Google-like" search engine or slow the spread of e-commerce (read Amazon) and cite but two current examples. First a law recently passed by the French legislature which prohibits Amazon and others from providing free shipping on orders of books in France (under prior law booksellers are already limited to offer no more than a five percent discount to list price on new books). Second legislation recently proposed by the French Interior Minister to prohibit Uber and other car service companies from picking up passengers in LESS than 15 minutes after the order is placed.
As loyal readers of this blog know I am a great fan of modern car dispatch services like Uber and Hailo and I am both a decent Francophone and a great Francophile but this latest proposal really pissed me off. Paris is dear to my heart and the year my then-fiancée Maarit and I lived in Paris stands as one of our happiest; however next to Death Valley California Paris is one off the worst places on earth to get a taxi. Thus I was overjoyed this past September when we flitted around Paris in nice cars at reasonable expense at all hours of the day and night thanks to Uber. Average wait time? Five to six minutes.
Under the proposed new law intended to "enhance competition on a level playing field" we would have had to stare at our summoned car for 10 minutes before getting in. Not only is the proposed legislation deeply anti-consumer it is retrograde and techno-phobic. In the end it will not only deprive French citizens and tourists of an efficient and consumer-friendly new service but also retard the development of potentially competitive French services that leverage mobile internet technology.
Let them eat cake while they wait for their taxi.
