Technical Innovation, French Style

Technically, Minitel was both ahead of its time and constrained by its era. The system used the French Videotex standard, displaying text and basic graphics on terminals connected via phone lines to central servers. Users navigated services using a simple numeric system—3615 for commercial services became as recognizable as www would later become.

What made Minitel revolutionary wasn't its technology but its business model. France Télécom handled billing centrally, adding charges to users' phone bills and distributing revenues to service providers. This solved the micropayment problem that would plague the early internet for years. Entrepreneurs could launch services without worrying about payment processing, fraud, or customer acquisition—the terminals were already in millions of homes.

"Minitel created France's first generation of digital entrepreneurs," recalls Xavier Niel, founder of Free and a major figure in French Tech. "We learned that technology was about services, not just infrastructure. That lesson shaped everything that came after."