Minitel
Minitel, officially known as TELETEL, was an interactive videotex online service accessible through telephone lines. It was the world's first and most successful mass-market online service prior to the World Wide Web. It was developed in Cesson-Sévigné, Brittany, by government-owned France Télécom.
The service was initially launched on an experimental basis on 15 July 1980 in Saint-Malo and extended to other regions in late 1980. It was commercially introduced throughout France in 1982 by the PTT. From its inception, users were able to make online purchases, book train tickets, access business information services, search the telephone directory, maintain a mailbox, and utilize chat functionalities similar to those now supported by the World Wide Web.
In February 2009, France Télécom reported that the Minitel network still maintained 10 million monthly connections. The service was discontinued by France Télécom on 30 June 2012.
Name
Officially known as TELETEL, the name Minitel is derived from the French title Médium interactif par numérisation d'information téléphonique.History
Videotex was a crucial element in the telecommunications sector of many industrialized countries, with numerous national post, telephone, and telegraph companies and commercial ventures launching pilot projects. It was viewed as a major force in advancing towards an information society.In the late 1970s, France lagged noticeably behind in the telephone network industry. Fewer than seven million telephone lines served a population of 47 million people. Recognizing this shortfall, both French citizens and government leaders grew concerned about the United States’ technological advantage in telecommunications. This concern led to the birth of the concept of telematics—a term coined by Simon Nora and Alain Minc to describe the combination of telecommunications and informatics. Their goal was to digitize the national telephone network, laying the groundwork for what would eventually become Minitel.
In 1978, Postes, Télégraphes et Téléphones initiated the design of the Minitel network. By distributing terminals capable of accessing a nationwide electronic directory of telephone and address information, the PTT aimed to increase the utilization of the country’s 23 million phone lines and reduce the costs associated with printing phone books and employing directory assistance personnel. Millions of terminals were given for free to telephone subscribers.
The telephone company prioritized ease of use. The French government's decision to provide free Minitel terminals to every household was a key factor in the widespread adoption and success of Minitel. By providing a popular service on simple, free equipment, Minitel achieved high market penetration and avoided the chicken and egg problem that hindered the widespread adoption of similar systems in the United States. In exchange for the terminal, Minitel users received only the yellow pages, while the white pages were freely accessible on Minitel and could be searched faster than through a paper directory.
In the early 1980s, parallel to the US development of the ARPANET, France launched the Minitel project to bring data networking into homes. According to the PTT, during the first eight years of nationwide operation, 8 billion francs were spent on purchasing terminals, resulting in a profit of after deducting payments to information providers such as newspapers. Additionally, an average of 500 million francs was saved annually by printing fewer phone books.
A trial involving 55 residential and business telephone customers using experimental terminals commenced in Saint-Malo on 15 July 1980, two days after a presentation to President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing on 13 July. This trial expanded to 2,500 customers in other regions in autumn 1980. Beginning in May 1981, 4,000 experimental terminals with a different design were distributed in Ille-et-Vilaine, and commercial service using Minitel terminals was launched in 1982. By the end of 1983, there were 120,000 Minitel terminals in France. It became highly successful in 1984 when the French government distributed free Minitel terminals to households.
Minitel became a financial success for the PTT, as using the service cost the 2022 equivalent of 30 euro cent per minute. The telephone company primarily provided the white pages, while establishing infrastructure for other entities to offer services. Minitel facilitated access to various categories including the phone directory, mail-order retail companies, airline or train ticket purchases, information services, databases, message boards, online dating services, and computer games.
By 1985, games and electronic messaging accounted for 42 percent of Minitel traffic, with messaging alone representing 17 percent of traffic by 1988. The platform became particularly popular among young people, who would engage in late-night sessions playing text-based online video games.
By early 1986, 1.4 million terminals were connected to the Minitel network, with plans to distribute an additional million by the end of the year. This expansion faced opposition from newspapers concerned about competition from an electronic network. In 1980, Ouest-France expressed the concern that Minitel would "separate people from each other and endanger social relationships". To mitigate opposition from the newspapers, they were permitted to establish the first consumer services on Minitel. Libération offered 24-hour online news, including results from events at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles that occurred overnight in France. Providers promoted their services in their own publications, which helped to market the Minitel network. Newspapers were founded specifically to create Minitel services.
By 1988, three million terminals were installed, with 100,000 new units being added monthly. The telephone directory received 23 million calls per month, with 40,000 updates daily. Approximately six thousand other services were available, with around 250 new ones being added each month.
The emergence of Minitel led to the proliferation of numerous start-up ventures, similar to the later dot-com bubble of World Wide Web-related companies. Many of these small enterprises encountered challenges due to an oversaturated market or poor business practices, such as inadequate infrastructure for online retailers. By the late 1980s, the Minitel system had become widespread in France, with numerous products displaying their Minitel numbers as a direct marketing tool.
Despite initial expectations, messageries roses, adult chat services facilitated by operators posing as receptive women, gained significant traction, causing some discomfort among government officials who preferred to focus on the growing business applications of messaging. Extensive street advertising promoted services such as "3615 Sextel", "Jane", "kiss", "3615 penthouse", and "men". These and other pornographic sites faced criticism for their potential accessibility to minors. While the government opted against implementing coercive measures, it underscored the responsibility of parents, rather than governmental intervention, in regulating children's online activities. The government did impose a tax on pornographic online services.
Numerous services were covertly operated by conservative newspapers, which publicly expressed disapproval of the sex industry. The majority of operators were not the scantily-clad women depicted in the advertisements, but were men engaged in their regular occupations.
By the mid-1990s, it provided over 20,000 services, including home banking and specialized databases. Minitel was widespread in French homes a decade before the Internet became known in the US. France Télécom maintained steady income from Minitel and cautiously approached the Internet to protect its business model. This slow adaptation paralleled the hesitant adoption of high-definition TV in the US, where companies resisted new technologies to safeguard profits. France's struggle with Internet adoption reflected typical free-market issues, rather than those associated with centralized economies.
In 1997, recognizing the emerging global Internet society, the French government partially privatized France Télécom, ending its telephone monopoly and introducing competition in the telecommunications sector. This led to reduced prices for telephone communications, allowing more affordable dial-up Internet access by the late 1990s. Minitel became quickly outpaced by the development of the Internet. France Télécom estimated that by the end of 1999, almost 9 million terminals, including web-enabled personal computers, had access to the network, which was used by 25 million people out of a total population of 60 million. Developed by 10,000 companies, nearly 26,000 different services were available by 1996.
Finances
Payment methods included credit cards for purchases and telephone bills, with rates contingent upon the websites visited. Initially, users subscribed to individual services, but adoption surged following the introduction of a "kiosk" model by the telephone company, named after newsagent shops. Charges for Minitel usage and voice calls were amalgamated on the monthly telephone bill without itemized breakdown. Service providers typically received two-thirds of the $10 per hour fee paid by customers as of 1988.Since the telephone company managed bill collection and users who failed to settle bills risked losing telephone service, the customer acquisition cost for service providers remained low. The consolidated billing system fostered impulse shopping, as users, while browsing, often discovered and utilized additional services beyond their original intention. Given the anonymity of users and services, Minitel usage was prevalent in workplaces where companies covered telephone expenses.
In 1985, France Télécom generated 620 million francs in revenue from Minitel. Throughout the year, 2,000 private companies collectively earned 289 million francs, while Libération, a prominent newspaper, garnered 2.5 million francs from the service in September. Despite the increasing prevalence of the World Wide Web, Minitel connections remained stable in the late 1990s, with a consistent monthly volume of 100 million connections alongside 150 million online directory inquiries.
In response to the rising incidence of cybercrime, France Telecom developed a new contract specifying that all Minitel service operators must identify themselves by providing their name and address. This measure aimed to enhance security and accountability within the network.
In 1998, Minitel returned in revenue, with allocated by France Télécom to service providers. Notably, Minitel sales in the late 1990s constituted nearly 15 percent of total sales for La Redoute and 3 Suisses, prominent mail order companies in France. By 2005, the most popular Minitel application was Teleroute, an online real-time freight exchange, which accounted for nearly 8 percent of Minitel usage.
In December 1985 Minitel users made more than 22 million calls, up 400 percent in one year. In 1994 they made 1,913 million Minitel calls, used the system for 110 million hours, and spent 6.6 billion francs. In 2005, there were 351 million calls for 18.5 million hours of connection, generating of revenue, of which were redistributed to 2,000 service providers. There were still six million terminals owned by France Télécom, which had been left with their users in order to avoid recycling problems.
Key utilization of Minitel included banking and financial services, which leveraged Minitel's security features, as well as access to professional databases. France Télécom cited 12 million updates to personal carte vitale healthcare cards were facilitated through Minitel.
By 2007, revenue exceeded. This trend persisted into 2010, with revenues reaching, of which 85 percent was allocated to service providers.