01Net TV Interview: Orange Silicon Valley CEO Georges Nahon

01net TV Interview: Orange Silicon Valley CEO Georges Nahon

Click here for video (in French)

01net: What is OSV ?

GN: Orange Silicon Valley is a division of the Orange group, it exists since 15 years. It focus on the new technology trends and innovations that can be interesting for Orange and its customers.

We are a fifty person team, mostly engineers and business analysts, that help find new products, services, and companies that we can invest in. In the last two to three years, we have invested in five companies.

01net: So, Georges, you are a witness of the innovation happening in the Silicon Valley. Do you think that it is still the driver of innovation in the world ?

GN: It’s undeniable! Even though there are new hotbeds of innovation, especially in China and on the East Coast of the United States, there is still something specific about the Silicon Valley. It’s unique because of it’s concentration of important universities and venture capital. It’s a huge community of old and new people that interact together to innovate, especially in the software industry (so it’s more a software valley than a Silicon Valley). This area is still technologically ahead.. 01net: Before we had the PC, we also had smartphone, we also spoke of Big Data and connected devices, what are the new trends that you identify?

GN: Today, the market is looking for the next platform. There are several technologies to help us to find it. The first one is Artificial Intelligence, then Big Data. We also have blockchain and all the Crypto technologies that were originally used for the BitCoin, but are also being used for other applications in the secured transactions industry.

01net: Will the blockchain substitute the banks, the insurances, the accountants?

GN: It allows us to have a system of secured transactions which is not centralized. It’s as if internet was a network created and managed by only one organization. That’s not the case and that is why it has been developed so quickly. It’s the same with the blockchain. The certified transactions aren’t certified by only one authority. They are distributed over multiple computers. It will not substitute the bank and insurance companies because they are really interested in that technology. It will be a complementary system that will support the way they exploit the data. It will be more interesting and more economic, but it will take time.

Another trend are the new realities (Virtual, Augmented, Mixed) that take advantage of a widespread smartphone and headset technology. These technologies have created a lot of hope and investment.

Finally, the 5G, that should arrive in 2020, but we already have some indications of early deployment such as T-Mobile, who just announced that they will launch the 5G in 2 years. We will see if it’s possible or not.

We are hopeful for what the 5G can offer to innovators and entrepreneurs. Thanks to speed, it open new pathways for innovation in mobile.