Xavier Niel Quotes

I have done a lot of stupid things in my life.

I'm always investing. I'm constantly in talks with someone about some opportunity.

Countries like France should not be naive. We don't have a French YouTube or Amazon or Netflix.

From France, you can call anywhere in the world for free. Americans can't do that!

It's funny how the smallest things I've done speak the loudest about me, but I like that.

When you love competition, you don't want the market to consolidate.

I made a lot of money, and I want to give something back to my country.

I don't like clothes. I don't especially like cars. I have a very nice house. I get sick on a boat.

I'd rather people talked about the 1,000 most successful French Internet companies instead of the 5 or 10 faces we already know - including mine.

Stephane Richard is far more attuned to the market than Didier Lombard.

Personally, I have invested in around ten U.S. companies and will continue to do so. That doesn't give me a strong experience in the American market. But I have an understanding of the public.

Each week I try to have three lunches with my children, one working lunch, and one lunch with mates.

We have to help young people, because at the end of the day, we won't have an economy if we don't have them.

You can spend your money on art works and sit down and look at them. Or you can use your money to help people.

Mark Zuckerberg did his own software for Facebook, and Larry Page and Sergey Brin made their own for Google.

Any country that wants to lower its mobile phone rates, all they need to do is bring in an aggressive player.

We have 200,000 kids a year who drop out of the French school system and have no hope. They become a drag on society.

'Entrepreneur' is a French word.

I'm not unusual; it's the others who are strange.

France has a specificity - the market players who provide Internet access are the telecom operators, and all of the players are French. They had a habit of, let's say, getting along with each other, and the prices traditionally were very high.

France is a fantastic country. It's between the Anglo-Saxon and Latin cultures. We have some of the Anglo-Saxon rigor, and some of the Latin quirkiness.

YouTube is a problem. It has very big traffic, but it refuses to contribute to the weight of that traffic.

France has the least social mobility of any developed country. The social elevator no longer works. It's broken.

I know one business, and that's how to make software.

I don't think Steve Jobs had much desire to share his fortune.

A free, analytical and questioning press must be helped survive.

The most sought-after candidates in the world today by companies like mine are people who make computer software - there's a shortage of talent.

I once said, 'Steve Jobs is the American Xavier Niel,' but that was humour.

I always follow the same idea: Start small and disrupt to create something big.

We need to create an ecosystem which will make young people want to start their own company.

If you know how to make software, then you can create big things.

Telecoms is a national business. There isn't a European market. There's no Telecom Italia in France.

The question for France and all countries is, 'Do you favour foreign Internet operators that do not pay, or do you favour national operators who pay?'

Giving only 50% of your fortune is not enough.

I like being an outsider. It is better in France on the outside.

In life, you need a house and a car. After that, you have a choice.

If you are worried about the risk to your reputation, you don't launch a telecoms firm in an aggressive way.

Nobody believed in the success of the Internet.

The real force of Silicon Valley is the mentality, the spirit. There's no reason at all that can't be replicated in Paris.