For years, Maxime Piquette and Charles de Potter have been passionate about audio. Driven by the desire to revolutionize internet broadcasting and podcasting, in 2013 they founded iCreo. The Tourcoing-based company is already behind RadioKing, a webradio creation platform that today hosts 2,500 radios from 170 countries. Noting the difficulties faced by podcast creators when they decided to distribute their product, the two engineers set themselves a new challenge: to offer a simple solution to enable them to host, manage, distribute and monetize their podcasts. This is how in 2018, the Ausha platform was born.
EDF, Decathlon and Liberation podcasts
Today, more than 2,700 podcasts are hosted on Ausha, which total three million monthly listenings. Sport, history, culture, politics ... All the subjects are approached, whatever the nature of the creators. “ We work as well with independent players who record for pleasure as with large groups such as EDF, AXA, BNP Paribas or Décathlon. One of iCreo's missions is to allow everyone to make their voice heard , ”explains Maxime Piquette. Many media, including Le Figaro, Liberation , the Team and even AFP have also chosen Ausha to host their podcasts.
The arrival on the French market in March 2019 of the Swedish giant Acast, direct competitor of Ausha, did not scare the Tourquennois. “ We do not position ourselves in the same way at all, they are entirely oriented towards advertising, while we operate mainly by subscriptions. The freedom of monetization offered by Ausha allows us to chart our own path, ”says the entrepreneur. The company has also partnered with Spotify, Deezer and Apple, allowing a podcast to be added to these platforms with one click.
Widespread confinement also had its influence on the popularity of the platform: the average audience of the catalog increased by 27%, and that of youth podcasts by 350%. A pleasant surprise for the founders. “ We thought podcasts were mostly consumed on the way from home to work. But we were so connected to our screens, I imagine that many of us saw listening to podcasts as relaxing moments that allowed us to rest our eyes, ”says the engineer.
Labeled by the CMPA
If Ausha is so attractive, it is partly thanks to the quality of information it provides to creators concerning their listeners. “ Data is a crucial element for podcasters. The idea is to give them a global image, in terms of age and sex for example, so that they can know who they are talking to in order to better connect with them, ”explains Maxime Piquette. Ausha is the only French podcast platform certified by the Alliance for Press and Media Figures (ACPM), a guarantee of reliability.
Thanks to a fundraising of 1.2 million euros completed in March, Ausha now intends to develop outside of France. " Even if the heart of the business will remain at Tourcoing, we are opening an office in Paris to get closer to our customers, our partners, and to conquer the European market, " announces the co-creator of the platform. And, later, even if the two entrepreneurs are aware that the competition in the United States is very fierce, they are convinced that they will one day " eat the American cake ".
