Key facts about France for driving traffic

General Information

• Location: West Europe
• Population: 65,45 million
• National Language: French
• Currency: Euro
• Capital: Paris
• Median age of population: 42 years

France is a member of the European Union and the G7, a group of leading industrialized countries. Economically, France is doing great. According to the 2021 data, France has the seventh largest GDP in the world amounting to $2.957 billion, and it is projected to continue growing steadily.

The quality of life in France is high. According to the ranking of analytical service Numbeo, the country ranks 30th out of 84. The population is gradually growing, and the unemployment rate remains relatively low - 8.06%.

And here's how France's population is distributed by age groups:

• 8,1% — from 18 to 24 years old
• 11,2% — from 25 to 34 years old
• 12,5% — from 35 to 44 years old
• 12,9% — from 45 to 54 years old
• 12,6% — from 55 to 64 years old
• 21,8% — 65 years and older.

You can find more statistics about France here. 

National Holidays in France 2023

• May 1: Labor Day (Fête du premier mai)
• May 8: Victory Day (Fête du huitième mai or Jour de la Victoire 45)
• May 18: Ascension Day (Jour de l'Ascension)
• May 28: Holy Trinity Day
• May 29: Monday of the Holy Spirit, also known as Pentecost Monday (Lundi de Pentecôte).
• July 14: Bastille Day (Fête nationale)
• August 15: Assumption Day (Assomption)
• November 1: All Saints' Day (La Toussaint)
• November 11: Armistice Day (Jour d'armistice)
• December 25: Christmas (Noël)
• December 26: Boxing Day/St. Stephen's Day (Deuxième jour de Noël)

Digitalization

• 71,15 million (110% of the population) use cellular mobile connections.
• 59,94 million (92.6% of the population) are Internet users.
• 52,10 million (80.5% of the population) are active users of social networks.

Internet

92.6% of inhabitants have access to the Internet, and this figure is growing every year. Compared to 2021, in 2022 the number increased by 1% (600 thousand). Each Frenchman spends an average of 5 hours and 26 minutes a day on the Internet, of which 2 hours and 34 minutes are spent on mobile devices and 2 hours and 52 minutes on computers and tablets. At the same time, they spend an average of 1 hour 55 minutes on social networks.

Types of Devices Most Used to Access the Internet

1. 77,1% – desktop
2. 87% – smartphone
3. 35,2% – tablet
4. 73,1% – personal laptop or computer
5. 23,8% – work laptop or computer
6. 25,5% – television
7. 12,8% – devices with the “Smart House” function
8. 16,9% – gaming consoles
9. Internet Traffic Distribution by Browsers
10. 55,91% – Google Chrome
11. 23,75% – Safari
12. 7,96% – Firefox
13. 5,54% – Microsoft Edge
14. 3,03% – Samsung Internet
15. 2,05% – Opera
16. 1,76% – others.

Safari, Opera, and Microsoft Edge have all grown over the past year, while Chrome has lost 4%.

Rating of the Most Visited Websites (SemRush)

• google.com
• youtube.com
• pornhub.com
• wikipedia.org
• twitter.com
• xvideos.com
• google.fr
• amazon.fr
• yahoo.com

SimilarWeb's ranking does not differ much from the one above most of the sites in the top 20 are the same. There are differences in the top ten, though, which include instagram.com, orange.fr, and leboncoin.fr—SemRush put them in the second ten.

E-commerce

France is one of the leading e-commerce markets in Europe, ranking third after Germany and the UK. The number of e-commerce users in the country reached a milestone of more than 50 million in 2022, and total revenue amounted to 129 € billion, representing 14% of total retail sales. 

Most Preferred Factors When Online Shopping

• Free delivery – 64,9%
• Coupons and discounts – 42,7%
• Loyalty program points – 40,5%
• Next day delivery – 31,4%
• Simple return conditions – 30,6%
• Reviews of other clients – 29,5%
• Interest-free payment – 20%
• Eco-friendly product or company – 19,3%
• Quick and easy online ordering – 17,1%
• “One-click purchase” feature – 17%

Digital Advertisements

Digital marketing is also growing rapidly in France. Total advertising expenditure in 2022 amounted to $18.37 billion, and 11.57 (63%) of this amount was spent on digital advertising. Additionally, compared to 2021, spending increased by 14.2%. 41.5% of digital ad spending was attributed to mobile advertising. 26.4% on social media advertising, and 85.8% on programmatic advertising. 

Advertising Formats with the Highest Annual Spending

• Search engine advertising
• Video advertising
• Banner advertising
• Influencer advertising
• Classified ads
• Audio ads

GWI's 2022 study found that internet user engagement is increasing year over year. For example, 9.8% of respondents said they had clicked on a banner ad on a brand's website at least once in the past month (at the time of taking the survey), and 11.2% had clicked on a sponsored post on social media at least once. 

Social Media

80.5% of the total French population are active users of social networks, and among those over the age of 18, this figure reaches 88.8%. On average, each person uses 5.7 platforms once a month. The ratio of users by gender is approximately even: 51% are women and 49% are men.

Demographic Profile of Meta’s Advertisement Audience:

Most Used Social Platforms

• Facebook (73,3%)
• Whatsapp (59,8%)
• Instagram (58,6%)
• FB Messenger (57,8%)
• Snapchat (44%)
• TikTok (37,6%)
• Twitter (30,9%)
• Pinterest (28,1%)
• iMessage (24,8%)
• LinkedIn (23,8%)

The average French citizen spends the most time per month on YouTube (11 hours and 42 minutes), Facebook (12 hours and 54 minutes), TikTok (21 hours and 24 minutes), Whatsapp (5.5 hours) and Instagram (8 hours and 36 minutes). At the same time, compared to 2021, YouTube and Facebook indicators declined, while the time spent on the rest of the leading social media increased. 

iGaming

On May 12, 2010, the French National Assembly passed a law to legalize and regulate online gambling. Since then, the gambling industry has undergone profound changes and online gambling revenues have continued to grow even during the COVID-19 crisis.

According to the latest published report from French regulator L'Autorité Nationale des Jeux, gross gaming revenue in the online gambling sector for the third quarter of 2021 amounted to €444 million, up 9.6% from the same period in 2020.

Key Figures

• 16.1% of the French population play casino games and bet on sports online.
• €308 is the average annual spending of players on online gambling in France.
• 18-24 year olds are the most gambling age group.
• Almost 9/10 of user accounts belong to men.
• €8 billion: the sum of all online sports betting for 2021.
• 4.5 million active online sports betting accounts.

Top Gambling Websites (SimilarWeb)

Advice on Content Creation

• 79% of French people will choose the latter between a foreign and local product, as they want to support local companies.
• Content text should be in French - using English may make the audience lose interest.
• Video content in the form of news reports, as well as content involving scratch cards is a good choice for France.
• Having money in the frame improves the conversion rate of the content.