Infonie, the Francophone interactive on-line service from Lyon-based Infogrames Entertainment, has attracted 77 partners for its scheduled October launch, the company said last month. When you ask people what they think of on-line services, the response – if they even know what they are – is that they would be too expensive and that they would not know how to take advantage of them. It is in this market context that we have conceived Infonie, said chief executive Christophe Sapet. The partners come from sectors including press, retailing, education, sports, leisure, the arts, and finance. They include Polygram NV, Club Med, music and book retailer FNAC, Avis Inc, Air Inter, Interflora, Peugeot Citroen SA, Nintendo Co Ltd, Sega Enterprises Ltd, Time Warner Interactive, mail-order specialists La Redoute and 3 Suisses, Paris metro RATP, the Louvre, Les Echos and Radio France, among others. Polygram, for example, plans to provide a music catalogue and hopes to promote French titles, which suffer a bit today from a lack of exposure, said the company. Infonie also provides a practical information rubric that includes items such as transport information, television guides, and job offers. Infonie has thus far swallowed up capital investment of some $40m, which is entirely European capital, Sapet said. Infogrames’ industrial partners for the on-line servers and network connections are Sun Microsystems Inc and TRT SA. Initially the principal server site will be in La Defense, just outside the walls of Paris, but the entire national territory should be covered by the end of 1996. Sapet denied that Infonie’s required 50Mb of hard disk space will pose an obstacle. Everybody says, ‘Oh, that’s not possible’, but our studies of consumer users shows that 70% of hard disks are not used, so there is no barrier to taking up that space, he said, adding that the average hard disk sold today on a personal computer is way above 50Mb. The multimedia personal computers have 300Mb disks, he said. The company is still seeking a manufacturer for its proprietary modems, and Sapet noted that it is discussing with potential suppliers whether it not possible to provide Infonie with an open modem. In the global cyber village, we aim to remain more or less local, but open to the outside world, Sapet explained.
