{{Short description|French entrepreneur, film producer, writer, jazz musician, and investor}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}} {{Infobox person | name = Jean-David Blanc | image = Jean-David Blanc.jpg | known_for = AlloCiné, Molotov, ''Three Days in Nepal'' (book) | children = 3 | birth_place = Neuilly-sur-Seine, France | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1968|05|27}} | occupation = Entrepreneur, film producer, writer, jazz musician, investor }}
'''Jean-David Blanc''' (born 27 May 1968) is a French entrepreneur, angel investor, film producer, writer and jazz musician, founder of AlloCiné and Molotov. He is France's thirteenth favorite entrepreneur according to the 2022 ranking drawn up by ''Forbes France''.
Born into a family of musicians (his father was the violinist Serge Blanc), he took an early interest in computing, a nascent field in France at the time. As a teenager, he created video games for the Apple II and sold programming services. At 15, he co-founded the bulletin board system Futura, before launching his first company, Crystal Technologies. By the time he passed his baccalauréat, he was already running a company with around fifteen employees.
His career really took off with the creation of AlloCiné at the age of 22, an innovative cinema information service by telephone later launched on the Internet, which became a notable success and still is today. After selling AlloCiné, he launched Molotov in 2016, a streaming distribution service for television channels, which also became a rapid success before being acquired by fuboTV in 2021. Jean-David Blanc became an influential angel investor, investing in a number of startups, including Meetic, Stripe and Square. He is also involved in artistic and literary activities. In 2012, following a paramotor accident, he wrote his first book, ''Three Days in Nepal'', published by HarperCollins.
== Biography == === Childhood and early career ===
Jean-David Blanc was born on 27 May 1968 in Neuilly-sur-Seine near Paris (France), in a family of musicians. His father is the violinist prodigy Serge Blanc who entered the Conservatoire de Paris at the age of 10, and his mother a music teacher.<ref name=demain/> His younger brother, Emmanuel Blanc, is a violist within the French National Orchestra (Orchestre National de France).<ref name=radio/> He took an early interest in computer science, a nascent field in France at the time.<ref name=radio/>
=== Business career ===
At the age of 15, Jean-David Blanc and Jean-Marc Royer created the bulletin board system ''Futura'', an imaginary city with discussion forums and virtual meeting places like a town hall, a post office or a police station.<ref name=evene/> He created his first IT services company, Crystal Technologies, and launched the first electronic information service for Minitel, "Marlboro Racing Service", the following year.<ref name=radio/> At 17, he set up Concerto Télématique, a company providing interactive Minitel and telephone services to major brands such as Marlboro, Nissan and Coca-Cola.<ref name=entrepreneurs/>
==== Creation of AlloCiné ====
At the age of 22, Jean-David Blanc came up with the idea of AlloCiné, a fully automated cinema information service by telephone, providing free schedules of all Paris cinemas.<ref name=survivant/> At that time, the cinema showtimes could only be read on the spot or in cultural guides such as ''L'Officiel des spectacles'' or ''Pariscope''.<ref name=éclectiques/> Jean-David Blanc and his co-founder, Patrick Holzman, obtained an easily remembered non-surcharged number, 40 30 20 10, which will make the service a success.<ref name=éclectiques/>
In 1995, AlloCiné launched advance ticket booking which didn't exist in France at the time, then multiplied the distribution channels: interactive kiosks, Minitel, PalmPilot, then Internet in 1997.<ref name=éclectiques/> After running AlloCiné for ten years as CEO, he sold the company in 2001 to Vivendi-Universal.<ref name=éclectiques/> The ambition of the company headed by Jean-Marie Messier was then to develop a worldwide service and make AlloCiné its cornerstone, but Jean-David Blanc finally decided to leave the group shortly after.<ref name=radio/>
==== Creation of Molotov ====
In July 2016 he launched, notably with Pierre Lescure, founder of Canal+, a new online TV channels distribution service called Molotov.<ref name=molotov/> The aim was then to offer access to live channels and catchup programming without any hardware other than Internet access,<ref name=box/> for which he raised €35 million.<ref name=cocktail/> The company makes money by offering programme recording options and pay-TV channels packages.<ref name=molotov/>
At its launch, the service was considered by the industry as the future of television, innovating with its interface and ease of navigation through television programmes.<ref name=defining/> Molotov reached one million users in eight months.<ref name=million/> The company was acquired in November 2021 for €164.3 million by fuboTV, an American subscription-based video on demand service, which aimed to make it its European hub.<ref name=streaming/> Jean-David Blanc stayed on as president of Molotov and became its chief strategy officer.<ref name=streaming/> Molotov then claimed more than thirteen million users, including 250,000 paying users.<ref name=plateforme/>
==== Angel investor ====
He is one of the first investors in Meetic, the French pioneer of dating websites founded by Marc Simoncini<ref name=survivant/> and dozens of start-ups such as the Stripe payment service, Square launched by Jack Dorsey the founder of Twitter,<ref name=dorsey/> Coursera, Wemoms (later acquired by Voodoo) or the Stuart delivery service (acquired by La Poste).<ref name=stuart/>
In 2022 and 2023, he is ranked in the top 20 of France's favorite entrepreneurs established by the magazine ''Forbes''.<ref name=entrepreneurs/>
=== Artistic activities and private life ===
Jean-David Blanc has been a musician from an early age.<ref name=evene/> He worked with his father the violinist Serge Blanc and studied harmony with the pedagogue Robert Kaddouch, as well as piano jazz at the American School of Modern Music in Paris.<ref name=evene/> In cinema, he has worked with actors and directors on various movies. In particular, he collaborated with Bruno Monsaingeon on the filming of the recital of the ''Tchaikovsky's Trio'' by Yehudi Menuhin in Moscow. He took a part in the movie ''Chance or Coincidence'' by Claude Lelouch in 1998.<ref name=evene/> In 2005, he produced the movie ''Cavalcade'', starring Marion Cotillard and Bérénice Bejo, adapted from the autobiographical book by Bruno de Stabenrath.<ref name=evene/>
In 2012, he wrote his first book, ''Three Days in Nepal'', published in France by the Éditions Robert Laffont and in the United States and Canada by HarperCollins.<ref name=Nepal/> The book tells his experience in 2011 when he found himself trapped in the mountains of Nepal following a paramotor accident.<ref name=survivant/> Unable to call for help, he spent three days descending the Himalayas alone to reach the valley and return to civilisation.<ref name=survivant/>
Jean-David Blanc has been in a relationship with the French director and producer Sarah Lelouch, with whom he has a daughter, Rebecca Blanc-Lelouch, born in 1998, then with Australian actress Melissa George with whom he has two children, Raphaël, born in 2014 and Solal, born in 2015.<ref name=vanityfair/> The relationship ended in 2016 when Melissa George accused him of domestic violence. Jean-David Blanc, who has always denied these accusations, was found innocent and discharged on 5 February 2021.<ref name=jugement1/> Melissa George, meanwhile, was convicted for using false certificate in court,<ref name=jugement2/> domestic violence,<ref name=jugement3/> defamation.,<ref name=jugement4/> and on November 10, 2021 and June 27, 2024 to a 6-month suspended prison sentence for attempted child abduction.
== Notes == {{Reflist|refs= <ref name=Nepal>{{cite book |date=4 February 2014 |first1=Jean-David |isbn=978-1443424028 |language=en |last1=Blanc |publisher=HarperCollins |title=Three Days in Nepal}}</ref> <ref name=survivant>{{Cite journal |language=fr |first1=Cécilia |last1=Gabizon |url=https://www.lefigaro.fr/mon-figaro/2013/01/08/10001-20130108ARTFIG00601-jean-david-blanc-le-survivant-de-l-himalaya.php |title=Jean-David Blanc, le survivant de l'Himalaya |journal=Le Figaro |date=8 January 2013 |access-date=7 February 2024}}</ref> <ref name=molotov>{{Cite journal |language=fr |url=https://www.lessentiel.lu/fr/story/molotov-fonctionnera-dans-toute-l-ue-768454110326 |title=TV sur Internet – Molotov fonctionnera dans toute l'UE |journal=L'Essentiel |date=20 March 2018 |access-date=7 February 2024}}</ref> <ref name=plateforme>{{Cite journal |language=fr |url=https://www.ouest-france.fr/medias/television/la-plateforme-molotov-sommee-de-cesser-la-diffusion-des-chaines-du-groupe-m6-1aa0dc7e-581c-11ec-9a47-41ee58d6a886 |title=La plateforme Molotov sommée de cesser la diffusion des chaînes du groupe M6 |journal=Ouest-France |date=8 December 2021 |access-date=7 February 2024}}</ref> <ref name=box>{{Cite journal |language=fr |url=https://www.ouest-france.fr/high-tech/high-tech-un-agregateur-de-chaines-veut-supplanter-les-box-tv-3779371 |title=Molotov, l'agrégateur de chaînes qui veut supplanter les box TV |journal=Ouest-France |date=19 October 2015 |access-date=7 February 2024}}</ref> <ref name=entrepreneurs>{{Cite journal |language=fr |url=https://www.forbes.fr/entrepreneurs/classement-top-20-des-entrepreneurs-preferes-des-francais-15-jean-david-blanc/ |title=Classement top 20 des entrepreneurs préférés des Français |journal=Forbes |date=23 October 2023 |access-date=7 February 2024}}</ref> <ref name=vanityfair>{{Cite journal |language=fr |first1=Sophie |last1=des Déserts |url=https://www.vanityfair.fr/culture/people/articles/article-mag-jean-david-blanc-et-melissa-george-de-la-comedie-romantique-a-la-tragedie-hollywoodienne/53192 |title=Jean-David Blanc et Melissa George, de la comédie romantique à la tragédie hollywoodienne |journal=Vanity Fair |date=23 May 2017 |access-date=9 February 2024}}</ref> <ref name=dorsey>{{Cite journal |first1=Owen |last1=Thomas |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/square-ceo-jack-dorsey-jean-david-blanc-2012-7 |title=Even At A Party, Square CEO Jack Dorsey Is Working |journal=Business Insider |date=27 July 2012 |access-date=13 February 2024}}</ref> <ref name=éclectiques>{{Cite journal |language=fr |first1=Fred |last1=Haffner |url=https://www.capital.fr/entreprises-marches/allocine-molotov-wemoms-les-business-eclectiques-de-jean-david-blanc-1325326 |title=Allociné, Molotov, WeMoms... les business éclectiques de Jean-David Blanc |journal=Capital |date=29 January 2019 |access-date=13 February 2024}}</ref> <ref name=jugement1>Court of Appeal of Paris, Jean-David Blanc vs. Melissa George, 5 February 2021, case n.17/03915</ref> <ref name=jugement2>Court of Appeal of Paris, Jean-David Blanc vs. Melissa George, 5 September 2019, case n.17136000563</ref> <ref name=jugement3>Paris Judicial Court, Jean-David Blanc vs. Melissa George, 9 February 2017, case n.16253000089</ref> <ref name=jugement4>Paris Judicial Court, Jean-David Blanc vs. Melissa George, 4 November 2021, case n.18/06523</ref> <ref name=evene>{{cite web |access-date=16 February 2024 |language=fr |title=Biographie de Jean-David Blanc |url=http://evene.lefigaro.fr/celebre/biographie/jean-david-blanc-2003987.php |website=Le Figaro}}</ref> <ref name=cocktail>{{Cite journal |language=fr |first1=Christophe |last1=Bys |url=https://www.usine-digitale.fr/article/tv-molotov-enrichit-son-cocktail-et-leve-25-millions-d-euros.N474003 |title=Molotov enrichit son cocktail et lève 25 millions d'euros |journal=L'Usine digitale |date=7 December 2016 |access-date=16 February 2024}}</ref> <ref name=million>{{Cite journal |language=fr |url=https://www.lesechos.fr/2017/04/le-service-de-television-molotov-atteint-le-million-dinscrits-165338 |title=Le service de télévision Molotov atteint le million d'inscrits |journal=Les Échos |date=3 April 2017 |access-date=16 February 2024}}</ref> <ref name=radio>{{Cite journal |language=fr |first1=Marie-Pierre |last1=Planchon |url=https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/podcasts/partir-avec/jean-david-blanc-3399265 |title=Jean-David Blanc |journal=Radio France |date=14 April 2013 |access-date=16 February 2024}}</ref> <ref name=demain>{{Cite journal |language=fr |first1=Emmanuel |last1=Paquette |url=https://www.lexpress.fr/economie/high-tech/jean-david-blanc-co-createur-d-allocine-veut-inventer-la-tele-de-demain_1777811.html |title=Jean-David Blanc, co-créateur d'AlloCiné, veut inventer la télé de demain |journal=L'Express |date=31 March 2016 |access-date=16 February 2024}}</ref> <ref name=stuart>{{Cite journal |language=fr |first1=Sylvain |last1=Arnulf |url=https://www.usine-digitale.fr/article/stuart-la-pepite-francaise-qui-uberise-la-livraison-express.N389003 |title=Stuart, la pépite française qui ubérise la livraison express |journal=L'Usine digitale |date=28 April 2016 |access-date=19 February 2024}}</ref> <ref name=defining>{{Cite journal |first1=Romain |last1=Dillet |url=https://techcrunch.com/2016/04/15/molotov-is-defining-the-future-of-tv/ |title=Molotov is defining the future of TV |journal=TechCrunch |date=15 April 2016 |access-date=6 March 2024}}</ref> <ref name=streaming>{{Cite journal |first1=Romain |last1=Dillet |url=https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/09/fubotv-to-acquire-streaming-platform-molotov-for-190-million/ |title=fuboTV to acquire streaming platform Molotov for $190 million |journal=TechCrunch |date=9 November 2021 |access-date=11 March 2024}}</ref> }}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blanc, Jean-David}} Category:French businesspeople Category:1968 births Category:French film producers Category:Living people