Current State of the Digital Audience in France (a Review of Industry Reports)

Section: Foreign Journalism

Over the past fifteen years, the digitalization of French society has been rapid and steady. Against the background of the growing number of digital devices in the world, France is one of the leaders in the rate of Internet penetration. Digitalization affects all spheres of French society, especially the sphere of mobile and fixed communication. The substantial growth in the use of mobile phones and smartphones leads to an increase in the consumption of mobile communication and the Internet. For this reason, the phenomenon of “three devices” appears. Nowadays French people do not limit themselves to the possession of one gadget with Internet access: most of them use a computer, a smartphone and a tablet. This research paper characterizes the current state of the digital audience in France and shows the main tendencies that affect the pace of digitalization. The basic data are borrowed from authoritative reports provided by the French institutes studying the Internet sphere. The conclusion of the study sets out the tendencies that are typical of French users nowadays: the growth of mobile communication, the reduction in the share of fixed communication, the growth of digital literacy, the involvement of the French in social networks, the spread of online shopping and the e-government system.

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