Other companies involved in the online distribution deal are Brightcove, Veoh, Sling Media, AOL, Netvibes and CNET Networks.

BBC: NEWS | Business | CBS to launch online TV network

Partly for that reason, points out Mr Chappaz, many start-ups, including Netvibes, already have their headquarters outside France.

ECONOMIST: France and the internet

To help people switch ExtremeTech published a short list of six potential replacements for Reader that included NetVibes, Feedly and FeedDemon.

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The inspiration for Netvibes came to Mr Krim one day as he was trying to track the activity on all his blogs.

ECONOMIST: Has Tariq Krim created a French internet blockbuster?

France's politicians have also noticed Netvibes, and have courted Mr Krim.

ECONOMIST: Has Tariq Krim created a French internet blockbuster?

"Facebook two hours down time this morning may make us rethink our login strategy, " remarked Tariq Krim, founder of cloud-based service Jolicloud and news aggregator Netvibes.

BBC: Facebook hit by technical problem across Europe

Originally launched in English and French versions, Netvibes has since been translated by volunteers into 50 other languages, including Chinese, Spanish, Hindi, Russian and even Catalan and Basque.

ECONOMIST: Has Tariq Krim created a French internet blockbuster?

Launched in September 2005, Netvibes attracted 15, 000 users on the first day and has since grown quickly: the number of users is expected to exceed 10m this month.

ECONOMIST: Has Tariq Krim created a French internet blockbuster?