Only five months ago, after filling many management positions,  the most recent was as the CEO of British marketing and advertising company Aegis,  Marie-Laure Sauty de Chalon (48)was appointed  as ceo of  AuFeminin sites- the largest women's portal in France in particular and Europe in general.

 

Sauty de Chalon, trying to remember the exact date of entry into the job says: "It looks ten months ago, even years, in terms of amount of work waiting for me".

 

The portal, which is a network of women sites spread out in several European countries, was founded  by  two French entrepreneurs in 1999. The couple identified  an unrealized potential, and decided  do something

 

 the success was immediate, and within two years the site have been translated into English and Spanish, and sites - brothers were opened  in Germany, Britain, Spain, Poland, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, Morocco and even Vietnam.

 

Three years ago the portal was purchased successfully by the german publishing and media company Axel Springer  at a value of 382 million dollars. Today the content platform of AuFeminin consists of  ten branches worldwide, including  local web sites such as (SanteAZ  which is engaged in health care, Marmeton  which Is a site specializing in food, travel site, a site for girls, etc.).

 

Let's talk numbers

Approximately 36million peopleare surfing the sites  of the group each month, 10 million of themonly in France. The social networksof thesesites, provide the groupabout 4.4million visitorsa month.  70percent oftrafficto  the sites, is originatedin the search resultsfrom Google.

For comparison, two additional women's sites in France, Marie Claire and ELLE are far behind - with the traffic of 2-3 million visitors a month.

AuFeminin Group's income in 2009 were 28.8 million euros. Sauty de Chalon is

Careful when needed to talk in terms of profit and says: " All i can say is that 34 percent of revenues are profits, but this figure refers only to the first 9 months of the year. We are in no hurry to publish complete data". The french mother company  is employing about 100 workers, a third  are content personal, 20 percent technology specialists and the rest are marketing stuff.

 

One source of income of AuFeminin  net is smartadserver marketing tool, that was developed by it as a platform for submission of advertisements and competition tool through double click technology. "Today, about 20 percent of group revenues come from the service of smartadserver at many sites across Europe. 80% of the additional revenue us coming from advertisers seeking to reach  the female audience", says Sauty de Chalon.

 

What distinguishesAuFeminin from the competing sites in Europe?
"I think that the first thing, is that the   founders made a smart assumption that women are looking for accurate content for which particular sense of community and belonging. The second thing was  developing the technology  that is accessiblefor women, that platform and the  sense of  virtual intimacy, is what bringing them to us every day"', says Sauty de Chalon.

 

 

Whenshe is beingasked about the competing sites, like GLAM  for example, she holds back, but finally says: "their site is a trap for advertisers commercial, of course we depend on ads too, but our primary concern is the content".

 

Our motto has not been changed over the years, and it leaves us at the top of women's sites in Europe. We are pioneers, and we making sure that  we  stay commited to ourselves. we act responsibly towards our community maintain her privacy. And of course we never changed  our general moto of  content  that are appealing to all women in general and a particular type of wome. everyone can find at our site what interests her".

Is There a difference between what women want and what men are looking for?

"Absolutely.  A Surfers survey that was done very recently in France, found  that the health topic is  the only one that is mutual to all ages and genders, but the further down the list of content issues, we can see that women prefer  naturally, Topics such as fashion and grooming, family, parenting, pregnancy and childbirth, love and sex, and of course online shopping sites".

 

Men, says Sauty de Chalon, using the Internet as a source of information about sports ( in the first place), technology, automotive, games and news, and are interested in on online shopping.

 

Can you say that  you have decoded the genetic structure of the women?

"We have tried. At first we tried. but you  can never really know  what are  really the most popular topics of people. We always strive to do the exact thing that is right, but I admit that at some point we gave up. Women are interested in everything.

 

"The content through all the sites of the group isonthe samelevel, " explainsSauty de Chalon,  "but the behaviorand conductcan be seenslightly differentslidingfrom country to country. For example, Spanishwomen: They talkalmost twice on oursocial networksthan any other state. Italian woman areslightlybehind them, but notat large numbers'".  

 

Is Facebook is a dominant participant at your group?

"we opened a Facebook page just recently, not without hesitation. we had a feeling that Facebook will steal our  surfers, But today we understand (I know that Israel understood this long ago) that Facebook is the best agent  for enlarging the daily traffic to the sites.
 

"Currently on the Facebook page of French AuFeminin   there are 70 thousand members who come mainly because the dining area is very developed there, they are aged between 30 and 40. The rest of the pages of the sites in different countries the numbers range from 7000 to -15 000 members, and they just grow every day".

 

 

 The system: local management and a desire to conquer

The offices of Spain, Germany and England, there are autonomic  journalistic

Systems. This is relatively new after years that the management of AuFeminin  insisted that the content will be set at "Champs Elysees" (Our offices are located there) and the content will be translated one by one.

 The first branch that has received independence was in Germany.

                                          

 

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In the upcoming year  new sites fromAuFeminin  group will launch their activity at  Chile, Mexico and Argentina, and  also  at China, Russia and India.

 

 

What is your strategy, do you decide  which country is suitable to join you and then conquer it?
"at first the The method was to set up our own sites in each country,  but as time passed we moved to the method of buying a local existing site, and developing it.

We did so in Germany and England.  This days we are considering to purchase sites in China and India, countries where our advertisers are very interested in".

 

 Is Israel also being targeted?

"I have deep affection for Israel, from  the times I was responsible for Southern Europe in Aegis. Our goal  in every new task is to achieve  balance within a year. There are countries we got these results after only 5 months. Israel certainly interests us".

Surprise: Women's portal is managed by a woman

Sauty de Chalonis the only manager Axel Springer, the controlling shareholders of Aufeminin. This fact, she says, surprised even her, but it also has an explanation: "The group belongs to a German company, and Germany is one of the worst countries in the field of employment equality between men and women. A significant percentage of women in Germany are not employed, and the percentage emission from the labor market also is high. At the Axel Springer group the ratio between man and women is fifty - fifty. absolute  equality between men and women workers".

 

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 Is There such  a thing as a female management style?

"I do not think there's a difference, and even if I thought that, I would not say it… I do not think that women behave differently or they receive decisions differently because they are women. Francoise Giraud, French writer and founder of the newspaper L'Express said once: " How can we have absolute equality between men and women? When a bad woman will be promoted…."

 

AuFeminin is  a Portal  for women, is  feminism an integral part of your agenda?

"I'll say a sentence I believe in with all my heart: feminism is over. French women received the right to vote only  70 years ago. when I was younger, I asked my grandmother," Why didn't you  go to the streets and demand rights?",  and  she answered me: " f  I would have done it  that, not I would have found love".

 It's sad but even today when I ask women about what do you fight  for or want to fight for- they still  say: " You cannot be too much a feminist, it would do me problems".

 

"In my point of view, the feminist struggle is over. There is a new feminism - let's call him  "new feminine approach".  The essence of this approach is , to know our rights,  to want more, without giving up our femininity. It is no longer a struggle, but a  that demand  from an equal starting point".

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