The absolute giant: over 2.5 billion users per month. Everything is there — tutorials, music, courses, documentaries — and it became the world's 2nd search engine after Google.

Free, funded by advertising (and the ad-free Premium subscription). Creators are paid through ad revenue sharing.

The choice of image professionals: no ads, a clean player, careful encoding quality. It is the showcase of filmmakers, agencies and companies who want a "clean" video on their site.

The reverse of YouTube's model: the video host pays (subscription), the viewer gets no ads. Ideal to embed a video without distracting viewers toward competing content.

The French pioneer, born the same month as YouTube. Now refocused on content from partner media and publishers (sport, news, entertainment), it remains the historic European alternative.

Free, ad-funded, with media partnerships. A sovereignty angle: hosting video in Europe, under European law.

The live-streaming reference: born from gaming, extended to talk shows, music and "just chatting". Its hallmark: the real-time chat, which turns watching into a collective event.

Free with ads; viewers support their streamers through subscriptions and donations, of which Twitch (Amazon) takes a share.

The short vertical video phenomenon. Its engine: a frighteningly effective recommendation algorithm that learns your tastes in minutes. It imposed its format on the whole world — YouTube (Shorts) and Instagram (Reels) copied it.

Free, funded by ads and built-in commerce. Regularly questioned in Europe and the US over data use and the influence of its algorithm.

The free, decentralised alternative, developed by the French nonprofit Framasoft. Not one platform but a network of thousands of federated instances: anyone can host their own, and they talk to each other.

Free software, no ads and no attention-grabbing algorithm: funded by donations. Proof that another video architecture is possible.

The original social network and still the largest: around 3 billion users. Its strength today: local groups, Marketplace and events — it became the digital village square, especially over 35.

Free, funded by targeted advertising: your interests are the product. For a local business, the Facebook page remains an expected touchpoint.

The image network: photos, ephemeral stories and Reels (short video). The visual showcase par excellence — restaurants, craftspeople, creators and shops display their work daily.

Free, targeted ads and built-in shopping. The algorithm now favours short video (Reels) — a direct legacy of TikTok pressure.

The real-time news feed: short posts, instant reactions, public conversations. This is where information travels first — and where controversies ignite. Renamed "X" in 2023.

Advertising + paid subscription (X Premium). Since the takeover, the model and moderation keep shifting — many users migrated to Mastodon or Bluesky.

The professional network: living CV, recruiting, B2B prospecting and expert content. Over a billion members. This is where your business talks to other professionals.

Free, funded by recruiting (job posts, Recruiter subscriptions), B2B advertising and Premium accounts.

The inventor of ephemeral content: photos and videos that vanish after viewing, 24-hour stories (a concept everyone else copied), augmented-reality filters. Very strong with 13-25 year olds.

Free, advertising and Snapchat+ subscription. If your customers are under 25, they are probably here rather than on Facebook.

Less a social network than a visual search engine: people "pin" ideas (decor, cooking, weddings, renovation) onto boards. Users come to plan a project or a purchase.

Advertising, with a precious trait: purchase intent is very high. A craftsperson or decorator finds an audience already searching.

The Internet's huge forum: millions of topic communities ("subreddits") where people discuss, help each other and vote for the best contributions. Answers there are often more useful than on the "SEO-optimised" web.

Advertising + subscription; public since 2024, its conversation data is also sold to train AIs.

The decentralised alternatives to X: Mastodon (German free software, federated like PeerTube) and Bluesky (open AT protocol). Nobody owns the whole network — each server sets its rules.

Mastodon lives on donations, with no ads and no attention algorithm. Proof, on the social side, that another architecture is possible.

The world's most used messenger: over 2 billion users. Messages, calls, groups — end-to-end encrypted by default. In many countries it is THE contact channel, including with businesses (WhatsApp Business).

Free; Meta monetises via WhatsApp Business (paid tools for companies). Message content is encrypted, but metadata (who talks to whom) stays with Meta.

Much more than a messenger: groups up to 200,000 members, broadcast "channels" followed by millions, programmable bots and built-in cloud. A medium in its own right — used by tech communities as well as a news source in conflict zones.

Free + Premium subscription + ads in large channels. Important nuance: unlike WhatsApp or Signal, chats are NOT end-to-end encrypted by default (only "secret chats" are).

The privacy reference: end-to-end encryption on everything, open source code, and near-zero data collection — Signal knows almost nothing about you. The messenger security experts recommend… and its encryption protocol is so good that WhatsApp uses it.

A nonprofit foundation funded by donations: no ads, no data exploitation. The healthiest model — which depends on our support.

Born for gamers, adopted by every community: "servers" organised into text, voice and video channels. Online courses, open source projects, fan clubs, mutual help — the HQ of the web's living communities.

Free, funded by the Nitro subscription (comfort perks, no content advantage): an ad-free model, rare at this scale.

The entry point to the Web for ~90% of connected humanity: "to google" became a verb. Its founding idea: analysing the links between pages to rank results (PageRank). Today, over 200 criteria and AI decide what you see first.

The most profitable advertising machine in history: advertisers pay to appear on top. Learn to spot the "Sponsored" label — the first results are often bought, not "the best".

Number 2, far behind, but more present than you think: its index powers Yahoo, Ecosia and other "alternative" engines. Microsoft revived it by putting its AI (Copilot) right inside the results.

Advertising, like Google. Its trait: Bing rents its index to other engines — many "alternatives" are actually Bing in different clothes.

The privacy engine: no profile, no exploited history, the same results for everyone. You escape the "filter bubble": nobody decides on your behalf what should interest you.

Still advertising — but tied only to the search term, never to your profile. Proof that an engine can live without tracking its users.

The French engine, designed from the start not to track its users. Allied with Germany's Ecosia, it is building an independent European search index — so that searching in Europe no longer depends on the American giants.

Non-targeted advertising. The stake is sovereignty: today, nearly every "European" search rests on Google's or Bing's index.

The engine that plants trees: its profits fund reforestation — over 200 million trees planted already. Results come from Google and Bing; the difference is what the money is used for.

Advertising, like the others — but 100% of profits go to ecological projects. A German steward-owned company, accounts published every month.

The new wave: instead of a list of links, a written answer with its sources cited. ChatGPT does the same, and Google fights back with AI Overviews. For the first time since 1998, search is changing its nature.

Subscription, plus nascent advertising. The upheaval: if AI answers directly, who will still visit websites? The whole web — media, e-commerce, SEO — is holding its breath.

The most used mailbox in the world: around 2 billion accounts. Launched with 1 GB free when competitors offered 10 MB, it defined the modern webmail — powerful search, fearsome spam filter, integration with the whole Google universe.

Free, funded by the Google ecosystem (advertising, paid Workspace for professionals). Google stopped reading your emails for ads in 2017 — but your Google account centralises much of your digital life.

The heir of Hotmail, the webmail pioneer. Above all the standard of the professional world: paired with Word, Excel, Teams and the calendar in Microsoft 365, it equips most companies.

Free for individuals (with ads), paid for companies through Microsoft 365 — one of Microsoft's biggest revenue streams.

The German email giants, from the same group (United Internet, parent of IONOS and 1&1). Very popular in Germany, hosted in Germany, under German law — an argument that matters since the GDPR.

Free with ads, paid ad-free options. The textbook example of a solid national provider anchored in local law.

La Poste's free mailbox: hosted in France, without targeted advertising. Less feature-rich than Gmail, but it is the digital equivalent of a public service — your data stays under French law.

Funded by the La Poste group, without advertising exploitation of messages: the model of a public operator.

The Gmail of privacy, created by CERN scientists: end-to-end encryption (even Proton cannot read your messages), Swiss law, open code. Now a full suite: calendar, storage, VPN, password manager.

Freemium: free with limits, paid plans beyond. No advertising — you are the customer, not the product.

The German alternative to Proton (formerly Tutanota): end-to-end encryption of everything — messages, subjects, address book, calendar. Hosted in Germany, powered by renewables, open code.

Freemium, ad-free. With Proton, proof that confidential email is a viable business model.

Started as an online bookshop, became "the everything store": hundreds of millions of products, 24-hour delivery as the norm. Surprise: over 60% of sales are made by third-party sellers on its marketplace — and its biggest profits come from cloud (AWS) and advertising.

Commissions on third-party sellers (~15%), Prime subscription, advertising (appearing on top is paid) and AWS cloud. For a seller: the audience is huge, but Amazon sets the rules and the margins.

The pioneer of person-to-person auctions: the unfindable collectible, the rare spare part. Today mostly fixed-price sales, with real strength in second-hand and refurbished goods.

A commission on each sale. The surviving elder of e-commerce: it watched all its 1990s competitors come and go.

The kings of local classifieds: Leboncoin in France, Kleinanzeigen in Germany. Hand to hand, often without shipping — furniture, cars, property, jobs. Leboncoin is one of the most visited sites in France.

Free listings for individuals; paid visibility boosts, professional accounts and advertising.

The European success of the moment: starting from Vilnius, it became THE platform for second-hand clothing — and Lithuania's first unicorn. It turned used clothes into a reflex for a whole generation.

Free for the seller: the buyer pays a "buyer protection" fee on each order. A clever model that blew up the classic listing fees.

The marketplace for handmade, vintage and creative goods: jewellery, decor, illustration, sewing. For a craftsperson or creator, it is the specialised global marketplace — with an audience that comes precisely for that.

Listing fees (~$0.20 per item) + commission (~6.5%) + visibility options. Criticised in recent years for the rise of industrial reselling, which dilutes the handmade.

The other path: your own shop instead of a stall at someone else's market. Shopify is the turnkey "ready-to-sell" subscription. WooCommerce, the free WordPress plugin, powers more shops than anyone: free, but you host and maintain it yourself.

Shopify: monthly subscription + payment commission. WooCommerce: free software — your costs are hosting and maintenance. In both cases, the key point: the customer base belongs to YOU.

The Chinese "factory-direct" wave: unbeatable prices, endless catalogues, apps designed like games (fortune wheels, countdowns). AliExpress (Alibaba) opened the way; Shein (fashion) and Temu industrialised it with billions in advertising.

Direct sales from the factories, tiny margins offset by volume. The awkward questions: durability, product compliance, manufacturing conditions — the EU opened several investigations and is reviewing the customs exemption for small parcels.

The music streaming giant, born in Stockholm as an answer to piracy: over 600 million users, 100 million tracks, playlists that changed how we listen. One of the greatest European digital successes.

Freemium: free with ads, ad-free Premium. The permanent debate: one stream earns the artist a fraction of a cent — streaming saved the music industry, not necessarily the musicians.

The French pioneer, launched before Spotify reached France: its personalised "Flow", high-fidelity sound and real French roots. Listed on the Paris stock exchange — a cultural player as much as a technological one.

Subscription (little free tier). Against the giants, it plays partnerships (telecom operators) and "artist-centric" payment, a model more favourable to the artists actually listened to.

The ecosystems' music offers: built into the iPhone, YouTube or Prime. They win not by the product but by presence — already installed, already billed, one click away.

Subscription, often included in a larger bundle (Apple One, Prime). Music is a loss leader to keep the customer inside the ecosystem.

The inventor of subscription video streaming: first a DVD-by-mail rental service, it became the most powerful broadcaster — then studio — in the world. Binge-watching and algorithmic recommendation changed how we watch series.

Subscription, completed since 2022 by an ad-supported tier and the crackdown on account sharing. Billions invested in production every year to keep subscribers.

The studios' counter-attack: each pulled its catalogue from Netflix to launch its own platform — Disney+ (Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar), Prime Video (included with Amazon Prime), HBO Max, Paramount+… Result: the world catalogue fragmented.

Subscriptions in head-on competition; the sum of several platforms exceeds the old cable bill. The trend: cheaper ad-supported tiers, and bundling.

The cultural exception: the Franco-German channel puts documentaries, concerts, cinema and series online for free — no ads, no subscription, in six languages. One of the best streaming catalogues in Europe.

Public funding (French and German broadcasting). Proof that high-quality streaming can be a public service — free for all Europeans.

The most widespread: 15 GB free (shared with Gmail and Google Photos) and above all Docs, Sheets and Slides — the collaborative office suite that forced Microsoft to reinvent itself. Several people write in the same document, live.

Freemium (Google One subscription beyond). Worth knowing: your files live under US law (Cloud Act), even when the servers are in Europe.

Built into Windows and Office: your documents sync without you thinking about it, and the Microsoft 365 subscription includes 1 TB per person. The default choice of the professional world.

Included in Microsoft 365: storage serves to make the Office subscription indispensable.

The inventor of the "magic folder": a folder that syncs by itself across all your devices. So simple it defined the category. Now refocused on teams and professionals.

Freemium (2 GB free, then subscription). A pioneer under pressure: hard to sell what Google, Microsoft and Apple include in their bundles.

The iPhone user's reflex: photos, backups and files synced with zero setup. Its discretion is its strength — most people use it without knowing.

5 GB free (quickly filled by photos), then iCloud+ subscription. A powerful loyalty lever: leaving the Apple ecosystem takes a real removal van.

The sovereign alternative: Swiss host Infomaniak offers a complete cloud — storage, collaborative office tools, large file transfer — hosted exclusively in Switzerland, by an independent, ecologically committed company.

Reasonably priced subscription, no data exploitation. The choice of those who want the giants' features without US law.

The end-to-end encrypted storage of the Proton suite: even Proton cannot open your files. For truly sensitive documents, it is the reference — in the same spirit as Proton Mail.

Freemium, ad-free. Confidentiality as a product, not as a promise.

The cloud you host yourself: German free software that turns any server — including a simple web hosting plan — into a private Drive: files, calendar, contacts, video calls. Adopted by French and German administrations.

Free, open source software: you only pay for your hosting. Maximum sovereignty — with the responsibility of maintenance.

The world giant of hotel booking… is European: born in Amsterdam, it lists millions of places to stay. For the traveller, the most complete tool; for the hotelier, an unavoidable and demanding partner.

A 15-25% commission on each booking. Designated a "gatekeeper" by the EU (DMA regulation): its power over hoteliers is now under supervision.

The inventor of person-to-person rentals: staying in someone's home, anywhere in the world. It created an entire category — and tensions: Paris, Barcelona and Amsterdam now strictly regulate tourist rentals.

Service fees on both sides (guest and host). The underlying debate: its impact on housing in tourist cities.

The real front door of local search: people do not just plan routes there, they choose a restaurant, a craftsman, a doctor — through the reviews, photos and opening hours of business profiles. For many shops, Maps brings more customers than their website.

Free, funded by local advertising. For your business: the Google business profile is free and it is the number one local visibility lever — fill it in seriously.

The largest travel review base in the world: hotels, restaurants, activities. An almost mandatory stop before booking — with the permanent challenge of fake reviews, which the platform hunts and European law now regulates.

Advertising and referral to booking sites (commission). Reviews are the free raw material; trust is the product.

The flight comparators: they query hundreds of airlines and agencies to find the best price, with clever tools (whole month, destination "everywhere"). They do not sell the ticket — they send you to whoever does.

Commission or pay-per-referral. Tip: once the flight is found, also check the price on the airline's own site — at equal price, after-sales service is simpler there.

Booking the rails: SNCF Connect for France, Trainline to compare trains and buses across Europe — useful now that rail competition (Trenitalia, Renfe…) reaches our lines. The train is becoming a serious alternative to short-haul flights again.

SNCF Connect: the public operator's channel. Trainline: commission on tickets. European rail can finally be booked as simply as a flight.

The Berlin unicorn of activities: guided tours, museums, excursions, skip-the-line tickets worldwide. With its rival Viator (Tripadvisor), it made "experiences" the third pillar of online travel, after transport and accommodation.

A commission on each activity sold (20-30%). For a local guide or rental business, a worldwide showcase — at the cost of a serious margin.