The software is riding the digitization of the economy – Les Echos

The first 100 French software vendors saw their revenue rise 10% last year

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“The software eats the world” , launched four years ago Marc Andreessen, the founder of Netscape. This finding is reflected as the world goes digital. The first 100 French software players, identified by PwC, the Afdel (which defends the software publishers) and the National Union of video games, last year saw their sales jump by 10% to 5.6 billion euros, against 2% last year.

First growth factor acquisitions. Publishers such as Dassault Systèmes, Talentsoft, GFI or Axway continued their shop in 2014. “The balance was positive for the French. We buy more than we redeemed “, says Jamal Labed, Afdel president and co-founder of EasyVista, an editor of Saas (” Software as a service “software sold as service). This is not necessarily sustainable. The Americans, who have considerable firepower, remain in ambush. There are two years, Adobe took over the French Neolane to $ 600 million.

Successful Saas

Another reason for this success: the industry is finally beginning to enjoy the Saas. The shift to the software sold as a subscription is intensive technology investments. In addition, publishers face a depression in their turnover, time that subscriptions catching license sales once paid in by customers. “We started the Saas there 10 years. It takes some time to enjoy it “, recognizes Jamal Labed. The amounts of Saas still modest. Number one ranking “Saas” Ullink, solutions provider for the financial markets, last year generated 90 million euros, a drop compared to 2 billion Dassault Systèmes, the first French editor. Number 3 of Saas, Cegid achieved thanks to him 48 million euros turnover, a quarter of its traditional sales.

Last motor finance. The banking and insurance specialist publishers have increased dramatically, driven in particular by international acquisitions. Their turnover has almost doubled, to 790 million euros.

Competition arrives from everywhere

If the stars are aligned for the sector, publishers need to benefit be present in the process of innovation. For competition arrived from all sides, and some Internet companies, whose expertise is primarily software, are experiencing much higher growth rates to traditional actors (see below). Thus, PwC has compiled a ranking of the top 100 digital players including alongside publishers, Internet companies and game publishers. “All these trades are based on the software, even if the different economic models” , justifies Pierre Marty, partner at PwC. The consolidated turnover of the first 100 players grew 13% year on year to 8.8 billion euros. But the number one industry, Dassault Systèmes, is dogged by Ubisoft (video games) and especially by Criteo, one of the stars of French Net.

Besides, borders become increasingly porous between the traditional and the digital industry companies. The payment terminal manufacturer Ingenico has taken Ogone (payment on the Internet), Safran acquired Dictao, a publisher of security solutions, and Schneider Electric acquired Invensys (industrial software) for 3.8 billion euros. Now Uber competition taxis G7 BlaBlaCar rivals SNCF and Booking.com Accor.

Strong breakthrough of Net companies

The first 20 French companies recorded a growth of Net 27 % to € 1.7 billion in revenue, according to PwC. With 68% growth to 745 million revenue, Criteo takes all. Teads, founded by Pierre Chappaz saw its income increase by nearly 30% to 77 million. “The downside remains access to finance which limits the expansion speed,” moderates Pierre Marty, PwC.

The game focuses around Ubisoft

L ‘French video game industry is virtually indistinguishable from Ubisoft, the turnover of 1.4 billion euros weighs 76% of the total. He beat Gameloft, founded by the siblings Guillemot, and 227 million euros. In recent years, the sector is highly concentrated in the needs of ever-increasing effect on investments.

Sandrine Cassini