Orange and Cityvox are making restaurant entrances interactive, thanks to NFC tags

From today, 1553 restaurants in 133 towns in France will enjoy interactive “2012 Cityvox Selection” tags by their entrances, thanks to the partnership between Orange and Cityvox.

Paris, 1-11-2012 — /europawire.eu/ — This innovative technological partnership, based on the Orange Business Services Mobile Web Edition offer, provides consumers with real time access to the opinions of online users about the restaurant in question, simply by passing their NFC-enabled mobile phone(1) over the tag.

For 12 years, Cityvox users have discovered, suggested, tested and then recommended places to go out all over France. They elect their “favourite restaurants” which are then rewarded with the “Cityvox 2012” label.
This year, Cityvox users elected restaurants with creative menus based on fresh produce and modern, stylish designs. International cuisine is increasingly popular, and the 2012 rankings will take you on a trip around the world: Thailand, Morocco, Japan, not to mention Italy, a favourite for visitors to the site…

Brasseries as well as the un-missable traditional French restaurants, are still well-represented in the rankings.
To deliver this service, Cityvox uses the Orange Business Services Mobile Web Edition solution, which includes:

• a tool for creating mobile websites which can be accessed online,
• hosting for the site and its content (videos, etc.),
• a real time statistics and reporting tool,
• generating and managing all the tags (flashcodes, QRcodes, NFC)

Orange aims to make NFC technology available to the general public as well as companies so as to democratize its uses.
The restaurants selected by web users earn a Cityvox 2012 red vignette which can be seen in restaurant windows.
People without an NFC enabled mobile can also use the service using the flashcode on the tag, after having downloaded an application to read these codes(2).
To find out everything you need to know about tags, go to http://mobilewebedition.fr/comment-ca-marche.php

more than a ranking, the Cityvox selection is also a tool for choosing where to go out, providing information about what site visitors prefer.

The detailed rankings of restaurants in Paris, Marseille and Bordeaux is available in three free Cityvox applications for iPhone.
To discover the favourite restaurants of 2012, a table set up and commented by gourmet site users is available here.

(1) list of compatible devices: http://cityzi.orange.fr/-les-mobiles-compatibles-Cityzi-.html
(2) to download a code2D reader, go to: www.tc3.fr Downloading the reader may involve a connection cost depending on your mobile phone package and / or your operator.

about Orange

France Telecom-Orange is one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators with sales of 45.3 billion euros for 2011 and has 170,000 employees worldwide at 30 September 2012, including 105,000 employees in France. Present in 33 countries, the Group has a total customer base of 227 million customers at 30 September 2012, including 169 million mobile customers and 15 million broadband internet (ADSL, fibre) customers worldwide. Orange is one of the main European operators for mobile and broadband internet services and, under the brand Orange Business Services, is one of the world leaders in providing telecommunication services to multinational companies.

With its industrial project, “conquests 2015”, Orange is simultaneously addressing its employees, customers and shareholders, as well as the society in which the company operates, through a concrete set of action plans. These commitments are expressed through a new vision of human resources for employees; through the deployment of a network infrastructure upon which the Group will build its future growth; through the Group’s ambition to offer a superior customer experience thanks in particular to improved quality of service; and through the acceleration of international development.

France Telecom (NYSE:FTE) is listed on NYSE Euronext Paris (compartment A) and on the New York Stock Exchange. For more information (on the internet and on your mobile): www.orange.com, www.orange-business.com, www.orange-innovation.tv or to follow us on Twitter: @presseorange. Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trade marks of Orange Brand Services Limited, Orange France or France Telecom.

###

press contacts

Cityvox
Christèle Taurisson – Tél :04 95 04 33 83

Orange
Emmanuelle Gourlet – Tél : 01 55 22 23 11
Khadija Komara  – Tél : 01 44 44 93 93