Bonjour, Viva Technologists!
That was fun, eh? It has been a pleasure to be part of your routine at VivaTech. We’ll send a wrapup email tomorrow with final thoughts about technology, politics, markets, and more, based on our reporting in and around the expo these past three days.
The last day of the conference ends with clouds and rain, but there’s enough heat coming from the frenzy of founders making their final pitches to warm things up.
What to watch for today
Open the gates. VivaTech is now open to the public—tickets cost €20—so the vibe is less businessy than before, and most of the programming is en français. There are lots of product demonstrations and workshops throughout the halls, including an all-day hackathon designed to get kids excited about entrepreneurship.
Rise and shine. As soon as the doors open at 9am, head to the Google booth for an hour-long yoga session. But isn’t yoga supposed to be about getting away from technology?
Fun and games. Embrace your inner Jedi on Stage Y, swinging lightsabers at friends (or enemies) at a demo by the Sport Saber League. (Yep, it’s a thing.) Over on Stage X check out the finalists in an esport tournament for vehicular soccer game Rocket League, with €4,000 in prize money up for grabs. And if you like more cerebral pursuits, Mentalista has developed a game where two players are hooked up to brainwave readers and try to outthink the ball into their opponent’s net.
What everyone is talking about
A short walk from the sprawling VivaTech booths run by Facebook and Google, EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager was on stage with their fate in her hands. One solution to Facebook’s growing dominance, as recently suggested by co-founder Chris Hughes, is to break it up—perhaps splitting off WhatsApp and Instagram from the rest of the social network.
Vestager said that would be a last resort, as it would probably get bogged down in court for a decade. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, however, may find Vestager’s other suggestion to rein his company in just about as unappealing: forcing Facebook to open up its vast stores of data to competitors. “We think much more about access to data when it comes to, for instance, misuse of position of a monopoly,” she said. “If you have no access to data, you won’t be able to make it in the market because you cannot access potential customers.” We wrote more about it here.
More highlights from yesterday
Startup nation. “You’re going to be exposed in the next 35 minutes to shameless Israeli propaganda” Yossi Vardi, an entrepreneur and investor, said at the start of a session on “Israel’s Miracle Machine.” Indeed, consider this miraculous stat: Startups in Israel raised about $6.5 billion in venture capital in 2018, almost three times as much as was raised in France.
Man vs. machine. Garry Kasparov said AI isn’t to be feared (bad actors using AI, however, could be another story). The chess grandmaster followed that up by destroying eight humans in machine-like fashion in a simultaneous chess match on the show floor.
Chart interlude
We’re right back where we started.
Seen and heard
“We’re doing the exact opposite of the Trump administration. We’re welcoming people.”—Pascal Cagni, chairman of the Business France lobby group.
“Partly, we see our job as helping you fail… and helping you realize the company is failing to deliver on product/market fit. It’s better to shut down, and better to shut down well.”— Reshma Sohoni, co-founder of investment fund Seedcamp.
If you’re not sure which booths to check out on the final day, the vibe in Hall 2 is a little younger and hipper than the bigger Hall 1, perhaps because two of the major themes of the startups there are video games and the environment.
“Your health is too important to be handled by a human being”—Dr. Shai Efrati, director of the Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine.
All this disruption is making my head spin:
Weekend reading
For the ride home, here are three things on Quartz that made us smarter this week (and have nothing to do with VivaTech).
The other economic weapons at China’s disposal. China vowed this week to raise tariffs on $60 billion of US goods, retaliating against tariffs the Trump administration imposed on May 10. But Beijing also knows how to inflict pain in less conventional ways. As Gwynn Guilford and Heather Timmons report, it’s pressured offending nations before by harassing their companies operating in China, inspiring mass boycotts of brands, and cutting off the flow of Chinese tourists.
A hazardous road to riches. Crashes are piling up on a tiny strip of highway that runs through the heart of the West Texas fracking frenzy—a boom so ferocious that the local towns, hotels, schools, and roads can’t keep up with it. John Detrixhe met the entrepreneurs who have sprung up in the desert along an important stretch of asphalt that newspapers have called “Death Highway.”
Jumping into tomorrow. For over a century, the jumpsuit has been billed as the clothing of the future. That future is now, Natasha Frost reports, with jumpsuits a growing feature in even the most conservative of workplaces. Year-on-year, retailers report a doubling of their jumpsuit business, as women adopt a “look of convenience” that’s actually a bit of a hassle.
So long, farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, adieu. Our best wishes for a productive final day at the expo, and we hope you have a safe trip home. The best way to keep up with the news wherever you go next is the Quartz app for iPhone and Android.