Voulez Vous a Mouse With Your Burger?
Of the American cultural influences most disdained by the French, fast food and the Internet are near the top of the list. Yet somehow a French company is finding success in combining the two.
At a Burger King along the Champs Elysees in Paris, patrons can order what might best be described as a digital value meal: Whopper, Coke, fries and 15 minutes of Internet access.
“Mangez, surfez!†urge signs surrounding a pod of PCs inside the restaurant. “Eat, surf!â€
The unusual combination is the brainchild of Cyberis, a company that for the last three months has been setting up dozens of cyberstations across France.
Independent cybercafes have sprung up in the United States in recent years, usually with disappointing results.
But Henri Delavigne, president of Cyberis, said combining fast food and the Internet works in France partly because it appeals to travelers who want to send e-mail, but also because it allows the wary French to explore the Net without investing in computer equipment.
“A lot of people in the United States have a computer at home and are familiar with the Internet,†he said. “But that’s not the case in France. Computers cost more, and we have people who have just discovered the Net.â€
To use the machines, customers buy “smartcards†at the food counter. A 15-minute card with burger, fries and soda costs 40 francs, or about $7. A 50-minute card with no food costs 30 francs, or about $5.
On a recent afternoon, Sadie Duncan leaned patiently against the restaurant wall while her 14-year-old son gazed into one of the terminals, whipping a mouse back and forth.
“I came in here and said, ‘Great, we can send a message to his dad,’ †said Duncan, explaining that her husband was on a business trip in Canada. “It’s fun for him to play around. At home he doesn’t get to use the computer because his father is always on it.â€
But not all patrons are Internet veterans like this teenager. For that reason, sales of the smartcards doubled when the company assigned “Cybergirls†and “Cyberboys†to the stations to answer questions.
He said the company expects to be profitable by the end of the year and to see a tenfold increase in its 150 cyberstations. The company is placing stations in hotels and hopes to win contracts to install computers in schools.
James Rochette, a financial officer at Burger King in Paris, said the program has been a success even though the restaurant chain recently said it plans to leave the French market.
Delavigne said Cyberis has already installed one station in a McDonald’s near Lyon and has plans for 11 more.
Tourists account for a large portion of the business, Delavigne said. But locals are also warming to the stations. More than 3,000 people have set up e-mail accounts on the company’s machines, he said, indicating that many are repeat customers.
Perhaps it’s a sign that French hostility to the Internet is overstated.
“People simply don’t know what it is,†Delavigne said. “And in France when you don’t know something, of course you are against it!â€
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