A trained designer and entrepreneur (digital agency, startups), François Le Pichon has built up expertise in creating digital platforms in France and internationally. He joined Molotov in 2018 as head of product, responsible for innovation and user experience. In 2020, François Le Pichon launched Molotov Solutions, Molotov's B2B offering, which markets the platform's technology and expertise as a white label.
You have officially launched your activities in French-speaking Africa. What are they?
Today, we are targeting the international market in two ways:
- We are opening Molotov internationally through local partners. We are developing the brand, know-how, and technology with the support of a local partner who will provide content and local distribution teams. This is exactly what we have done in French-speaking Africa with our partner Digital Virgo.
- B2B, through which we offer our white label technology to telcos and media groups wishing to move to OTT. We have also announced our collaboration with the TRACE group, for which we have developed and will operate the next version of its OTT platform, TracePlay.
We don't have a specific strategy for Africa, but rather an international strategy. We are starting our development on the continent because of the advantage of the French-speaking community, which allows us to create synergies with players on the continent.
The goal is to arrive with local content. Thanks to the Digital Virgo teams, we are able to identify local partners to develop our business. We do not want to develop a French platform that offers its content to different countries, but rather to offer content that is as local as possible.
Which countries are involved?
For the time being, we have launched our activities in Ivory Coast and Senegal. Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Tunisia, Guinea, and the DRC will follow. We really want to establish ourselves over time. Of course, the audience there is already very sought after, but we want to establish ourselves and develop a quality offering consisting of local and international channels, SVOD content at an affordable price (150 CFA francs for a subscription in Côte d'Ivoire, per day, with a daily commitment).
What content do you offer?
Our catalog consists of more than 400 hours of unlimited on-demand content: films, African series, documentaries, and children's content.
Channels broadcast LIVE, and for the most part also available for replay, complete this catalog: Nina TV, Savanna TV, and Passion TV, which are very successful thanks to their telenovelas. Four channels from the TRACE group, news channels such as Africanews and France 24, a dozen themed channels on sports, music, and fashion, as well as Top Santé and Gourmand TV from the Reworld group…In terms of local channels, we are delighted to welcome RTS1 and RTS2 soon
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We are open to collaborations with all local players, whether they are content producers, local, national, or private channels located in the target countries or in neighboring countries.
Africa remains limited in terms of internet access, and the price of data remains high. How do you take these realities and local specificities into account?
We have adapted to local specificities. On the one hand, we have optimized our applications to make them lighter in terms of data consumption. We have also developed a web platform that adapts to mobile devices. We will also be implementing an offline content download feature.
On the other hand, our service is available via a subscription with a daily commitment. We have developed partnerships with operators such as Orange, MTN, and MOOV to offer payment directly on the operator's bill. We are only in our third month of launch, but the platform already has tens of thousands of subscribers and the engagement rate on the platform is very good.
Beyond distribution, are you looking for opportunities in producing your own content?
We are not closing any doors. Molotov has always been a partner to content producers, not a producer itself. We are more inclined to aggregate content or channels without necessarily producing them ourselves. However, we want to establish ourselves in the region for the long term, so perhaps that could change…
What are your other development prospects?
In addition to expanding into other continents, for Africa, we will focus on the countries in which we are launching our activities. Each country has its own specificities and requires, in particular, forging new partnerships with telcos and working on the editorialization of our content (some content will be broadcast exclusively in certain countries). Next, we will look to English-speaking Africa and the Maghreb…
For now, we are on the lookout for new opportunities… We are approaching the international market in two ways: by launching Molotov in a country and by forming technological partnerships. We are therefore listening to operators regarding the use of our technology for the development of their OTT offering.