Sophia: PromoRepublic.com knock out

The French leader in advertising objects distribution via Internet, the company has been into liquidation. A new start-up of the 1999-2000 Net rush has fallen.

It was the end, on Thursday September 20th, for PromoRepublic.com. The company of Sophia Antipolis, the French leader in advertising object distribution on Internet has been put into liquidation. Two or three weeks ago, the company already closed its offices in Paris, Raffet street in the 16th district. From now on, the office of the start-up, in the Thélème, this building which looks like plane wings in Sophia Antipolis, has also been deserted.Launched by François-Pierre Le Page under the name of World International Trading, the company had surfed on the Internet wave. The company had passed from the sell of advertising objects on catalogue to the online sell and they had an address book full of large counts. In April 2000, a S.A. (Société Anonyme; Limited company) called PromoRepublic.com had taken the place of the SARL (limited liability company). The aim was to find investors with an objective of raising 40 million francs to attack the European market.The search for investments did not happen. But PromoRepublic.com, which had diversified its activities by creating some websites under the trademark World Multimedia, had kept on rising. As well, the company had developed a software plat-form which allowed users to make instantaneous 3D models, instantaneous quotations and online assistantship (see article of June 16th 2000 "World International Trading is gathering speed"). At a moment, the company was composed of 25 employees. Put in judicial recovery at the beginning of summer, the company had gone down to 8 people a few months before the sudden activity stop.The dream of François-Pierre Le Page, who wanted to put energy into a market which came from the old economy by betting on Internet performances, will not come true this time. As far as the French Riviera is concerned, after Up-e and Etexx put into liquidation, Respublica gone to Paris, Aucland not as good as it used to be, etc, we see that all the start-ups of the 1999-2000 Net rush are falling ones after the others.