Numerama (formerly Ratiatum) is a
French language
French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...
news website that focuses on digital and internet technology. It was founded in April 2002 by Guillaume Champeau and was published by his company PressTIC until 2015, when it was bought by . In September 2011, Numerama was ranked the 10th most social
pure play A pure play company focuses solely on a particular product or activity. Investing in a pure play company can be considered as investing in a particular commodity or product of a company.
Pure play firms either specialize in a specific niche, or hav ...
site on
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
.
History
Guillaume Champeau started the site in April 2002 as a
blog
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...
about
peer-to-peer file sharing
Peer-to-peer file sharing is the distribution and sharing of digital media using peer-to-peer (P2P) networking technology. P2P file sharing allows users to access media files such as books, music, movies, and games using a P2P software program tha ...
, the culture industry, and related economic and legal issues. He named it Ratiatum for the Roman settlement on the site of the city of
Rezé
Rezé (; br, Reudied, Gallo
Gallo may refer to:
*Related to Gaul:
** Gallo-Roman culture
**Gallo language, a regional language of France
**Gallo-Romance, a branch of Romance languages
**Gallo-Italic or Gallo-Italian language, a branch spoken ...
, where he grew up, and renamed it to Numerama in 2008. Champeau moved to Canada after qualifying as a lawyer, but later chose to leave the law and remained the site's editor-in-chief until 2016.
In October 2015, Champeau and his business partners, Guillaume Cavaille and Erwan Delahaye, sold PressTIC, the company that published Numerama, to the French online media company Humanoid.
In October 2015, while still under Champeau's editorship, it was redesigned and underwent editorial changes as one of the Humanoid brands.
Scope
The site evolved to have a broader focus, which led Champeau to rename it to Numerama. It analyzes the interactions between digital and Internet business models, the practices of users, and their legal framework. It often takes a critical stance, because it champions the principles of the free sharing culture, network neutrality
Network neutrality, often referred to as net neutrality, is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally, offering users and online content providers consistent rates irrespective of co ...
, freedom of expression, and respect for online privacy
Internet privacy involves the right or mandate of personal privacy concerning the storing, re-purposing, provision to third parties, and displaying of information pertaining to oneself via Internet. Internet privacy is a subset of data privacy. Pr ...
. For example, in 2008 it appealed to site users to make videos arguing the case against the HADOPI law
The French HADOPI law or Creation and Internet law (french: Haute Autorité pour la Diffusion des Œuvres et la Protection des droits d'auteur sur Internet, ; or, loosely in English, "Supreme Authority for the Distribution of Works and Protection o ...
.
In its 2015 refocusing by Humanoid, Numerama's editorial scope was further broadened to include pop culture
Pop or POP may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* Pop music, a musical genre Artists
* POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade
* Pop!, a UK pop group
* Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band
Albums
* Pop (Gas al ...
, the future of transportation, and cyberwarfare
Cyberwarfare is the use of cyber attacks against an enemy state, causing comparable harm to actual warfare and/or disrupting vital computer systems. Some intended outcomes could be espionage, sabotage, propaganda, manipulation or economic war ...
;social media
Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...
accounts devoted to cars (''Vroom'') and cyberwarfare (''Cyberguerre'') were launched in October and November 2018.
''Ratiatum Magazin''
At the end of 2004, Ratiatum launched a monthly magazine called ''Ratiatum Magazin'', as a paper complement to the website. The magazine was discontinued after issue 2 because the publisher Mediastone filed for bankruptcy.
Audience
In September 2011, Numerama was ranked by ''Le Journal du Net2'' the 10th most social pure play site on Facebook.unique visitor
Website popularity is commonly determined using the number of unique users, and the metric is often quoted to potential advertisers or investors. A website's number of unique users is usually measured over a standard period of time, typically a m ...
s per month;[ in February 2019, Humanoid reported that the site had 2 million unique visitors per month;][ by December 2021, 7–10 million.][
]
References
{{reflist
External links
Official site
French news websites
Technology websites
2002 establishments in France