Inside AngloINFO
by Tony Capelli
If you've lived on the French Riviera at any time over the last five years, the odds are that you’ve used AngloINFO.com, the English-language website that serves as an online home for the area’s expatriate community. It’s not really an exaggeration to say that “everybody uses AngloINFO”. However, far fewer know its story.
For most people who move to the French Riviera, the region’s famous climate is a major factor. Not for Wendy Wilson.
“I’m from Cape Town,” she explains. “There the summers are longer and the winters are way warmer than on the Côte d’Azur - I’d never seen real frost until I came here!”
{mosimage}In fact, Wendy and her husband, English-born Mike Hardaker, left their life on the southern tip of Africa in 2000 because they had an idea for an unusual, new media business called AngloINFO, and the Riviera seemed like a good place to start up.
“I knew the area reasonably well,” says Mike, who had lived on the Riviera and in Provence during the early 1990s. “It was the right kind of size, plenty of English-speaking residents… And it had other English-language media such as radio stations and magazines that we could measure ourselves against, to see if our business really was worth pursuing.”
After several months of preparation, they launched AngloINFO at the beginning of September 2000.
“It looked a lot different back then,” Wendy remembers. “But the key elements were all in place and the differences are really about detail.”
“We decided we needed to have a Yellow Pages-style directory,” Mike explains, “Although we wanted to use the advantages of a computer interface to make it more powerful than a traditional Yellow Pages, to make it easier for people to find the business they’re looking for.”
“We felt we had to have lots of practical information,” Wendy continues, “A living, online encyclopaedia covering all aspects of life in the region as it relates to the foreign resident.”
“Finally,” says Mike, “We wanted to provide a platform for members of the community to communicate with one another. We wanted to avoid the mud-slinging free-for-alls that were so much a feature of the Internet’s early days, so we decided to manage The AngloINFO Forum in a way that would make it as valuable a tool as possible for delivering information in English.”
“After all, that’s what we do.”
Early days for the couple were hard. Although usage of the site picked up very quickly and it was a talking-point at dinner parties across the Riviera, it was harder to make a go of it as a business.
“We launched a media-model website in September 2000, just as the dotcom bubble was bursting and the world advertising market was going into freefall.” Mike shrugs. “It was kinda hard to go into businesses and say: ‘Hey, you want some advertising on our website?’ ”
{niftybox width=100px,background=ivory,textcolor=maroon,float=left,textalign=left,border=gold,font=Arial,fontsize=12px}After much research and discussion, Wendy and Mike decided on a franchise model and, in 2003, the first AngloINFO franchise opened, in Brittany. It was followed by Normandy in the spring of 2004{/niftybox}By 2002, however, things were looking much better and it was time for the two to start on the next phase of their plan.
“Our vision didn't stop at The French Riviera,” explains Wendy. “The first site was about proof-of-concept. Then we had the challenge of working out how to take that concept elsewhere in the world.”
After much research and discussion, Wendy and Mike decided on a franchise model and, in 2003, the first AngloINFO franchise opened, in Brittany. It was followed by Normandy in the spring of 2004.
That year, however, was mostly involved in behind-closed-doors discussions that culminated in the pair closing an investment round, which involved the bringing in of additional members of the management team.
“It's what we needed,” says Mike. “Wendy and I are great at making things and fixing things if they’re broken - but those aren’t the only skills needed to make a company grow. Our new CEO and Chairman are superb at running businesses, which pretty much means that the two of us can focus on what we do best.”
The change has seen a shift in gear for AngloINFO, with three new franchises launching in quick succession - Poitou-Charentes, Aquitaine and Provence. More are in the pipeline, with Wendy and Mike currently working on the final touches for AngloINFO Cyprus, the first non-French site, launching in August 2005.
What are the plans for the future?
“I don't think I’m giving away any secrets if I say that our plan calls for more than one site launch per month in 2006,” says Mike. “Of course, it all depends on us finding the right people and we’re currently putting a lot of effort into finding suitable franchisees for regions across Europe.”
“And everywhere else,” adds Wendy.
From small beginnings, AngloINFO has turned into a huge website - or family of websites - serving over five million pages a month with 450,000-550,000 “unique user sessions”.
“It’s really very exciting,” says Wendy. “We had a vision, made a plan, followed it... and, finally, it’s all coming together the way we hoped.”
And the climate?
“It’s okay, there’re worse places to be!”
Another factor was the conservatism of the local market - one that Mike completely understands. “Monaco is the place known as a ‘sunny place for shady people’, but there’s a sense in which it’s true of the whole region. While the majority of residents are just great, there’s something about the Riviera that attracts a high number of fly-by-night operators. Consequently, if you start a business here you have an initial battle to prove that you’re serious about things. And that can take some time.”
Contact Details:
AngloINFO
BP 29
06901 Sophia Antipolis Cedex
Tel: 04 92 04 48 25
Fax: 04 92 94 48 26
