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INTERNET: The co-founder of Firefox comes to shove the "cloud"

 

He did not talk to him since he left the music streaming site Deezer in 2010. Benassaya Jonathan, co-founder of the French flagship Net returns with a new online service. The contractor installed the United States decides to tackle one of the most popular right now, "cloud" (online data storage) technology. If its new website, Nation * Stream, may seem trivial, the project is actually at the crossroads of all major trends currently agitate the Web and the Internet economy.

Landing on the market "cloud", Jonathan Benassaya tackles qu'établis more players. Evidence that the industry is carrying, Google (Drive), Apple (iCloud) or Microsoft (Skydrive) and Dropbox already offer solutions to store their files online. And services that can not clutter your hard drive.

But Stream Nation seeks to carve out a place differing maximum. Firstly, the site serves only heberger photos and videos without worrying about the music or text documents unlike all its competitors. Then, the presentation has nothing to do with the austere offered by Google Drive or Dropbox. "We want a family service easy to use by everyone," said Jonathan Benassaya. Instead of a common to most online storage services, which resembles a tree of files interface Stream Nation presents photos and videos as an album. So this new service aims to bring out the "cloud" of the universe geek to put to everyone.

Privacy above all

The other aim of this new service is the willingness to make a "cloud" as private as possible. "None of the photos and videos posted online may not be indexed by Google in order to avoid an image of the child is not found visible by all," Jonathan Benassaya hammers. Shared with other members of Nation Stream files also can not be downloaded by them.

An obsession with control left to the user prompting Jonathan Benassaya to refuse the temptation "social network" for Stream Nation. The current controversy over the surveillance program Prism NSA or respect for privacy on Facebook could, in this respect, represent a sacred boon for Jonathan Benassaya. Convinced that "respect for privacy is the new growth area of ​​the Internet", the contractor ensures that everything is done so that nobody knows that users store on servers Stream Nation. This will reassure those stung by the revelations about cyber nosy trends intelligence. Only problem and not least some might also find a new haven to store illegal material such as pirated movies or pornographic images. "We do not know in fact that users go online," admits Jonathan Benassaya.

Luxembourg, my love?

Beyond the service itself, the project also illustrates the globalization of the Internet economy. Aside from the nationality of the contractor, little or nothing project relates to France. The parent company Stream Nation is the United States where it is easier to raise funds (a U.S. investment has been $ 4 million in project funds). The European subsidiary Digital Nation is based in Luxembourg for tax purposes. The Grand Duchy indeed offers some particularly interesting exemptions for startups.

At a time when Google and Apple are pinned to their high degree of tax optimization, Jonathan Benassaya perfectly assumes its preference for a tax haven. "From the moment it is legal, it would be foolish to deny it," he says. He finds that the trial of the giants Net is off-topic: "Given the number of jobs created by a group such as Apple, I do not think it is justified to s & rsquo , take its tax practices. "

Jonathan Benassaya hope that her new baby will reach financial balance within one year point. To do so would require between 25 and 30 000 people subscribe to the "cloud."

* Storage is free up to 10 gigabytes and costs between $ 4 per month (100 gigabytes) and $ 19 per month (unlimited space).