Top 3 reasons to enter the French market for software vendors

1) It is big money: Valued at $50.5 billion, France’s market for Computer Software and Services is the third largest in Europe and fifth in the world. The market grew by 2.2% in 2015 and the forecasts predict annual growth rate of over 4% in 2017. The Business-to-Business market represents 80% of the total revenue generated by software editing companies. As a whole, the digital economy in France contributed to 5.5% of France’s GDP; 15% of productive investments; 7.8% of total private sector added-value. It is backed by the large size of its domestic market, being home to over 65 million inhabitants who enjoyed a high purchasing power of over $44,000 in 2013 according to the IMF.

2) Decision makers are there: France hosts 31 of the fortune 500 companies. The large number of French companies included in the rankings confirms France’s economic power, and in particular that of the Paris region, Ile-de-France. In terms of number of ranking companies, the US, China and Japan take the top three places. With 31 multinationals, France retains its position of fourth in the world and still stands atop the European podium, ahead of Great Britain and Germany. The vitality of the largest French businesses highlighted by the Global 500 shows France to be a key player in the competitive global economy. This has convinced a certain number of foreign companies to establish their European headquarters at a Parisian address or within one of the more active communes of Grand Paris. One such company is Microsoft, which established its EMEA headquarters in Issy-les-Moulineaux in 2009. According to the study Global Cities Investment Monitor 2015 (KPMG, Paris-Ile de France Capitale Economique),Paris comes third globally in terms of strategic investments, which includes headquarters, and second for regional research centers.

3) It is not saturated: All the big american vendors have entered the market decades ago and employ thousands of staff there. On the other hand, numerous medium and small sized- software vendors are staying out because of the language barrier, high cost of operations and lack of cultural understanding. Cloud, security, big data and Artificial Intelligence are buzzing topics and budgets are being approved every day for those initiatives, yet the offering on the market is quite limited compared to what can be found on the US market or the UK market. Tech companies are talking innovation and risks taking every day, it makes one wonder why some vendors are slowed down on their international expansion and miss out on growth opportunities. Asking yourself whether or not you should sell software in France ? Ask us ! At Imperadev.com, we can give you the documented answer and execute your marketing & sales efforts.