![\"Lemobile\"](\"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/assets\/download.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Today is the first day of LeMobile<\/a>, and the 15 finalists of the startup competition were finally announced at the end of last week. LeMobile is easily the biggest conference dedicated to mobile in France, and, unlike Mobile World Congress, mobile operators & platforms take the backseat to mobile apps at this<\/em> conference. Despite the fact that the conference’s theme suggests a focus on mobile giants like Android & Apple, the conference has lined up quite an impressive mix of local startups, international startups, as well as mobile apps created by big companies – there’s no special treatment for startups here, it’s all about the\u00a0best<\/em> app.<\/p>\n Among the list are some familiar French startup names – HeyCrowd<\/a>\u00a0(LeWeb 2011<\/a>\u00a0finalists), Appsfire<\/a>, LeCamping’s Babble Planet<\/a>, VeryLastRoom<\/a>\u00a0(a French equivalent to Hotel Tonight), Taxibeat<\/a>, and\u00a0DJiT<\/a> (or, as we know them: “e-DJ-ing”<\/a>).<\/p>\n However, there were also some quite surprising finalists that I’m excited to see tomorrow (i’ll be judging their pitches):\u00a0Europe 1<\/a> (the large media company) as well as supermarket Casino’s mobile app, German startup Babbel<\/a>, and a few startups I don’t even recognize<\/p>\n Some mobile games made the cut, like 94 seconds, a fast-paced quiz game around coming up with words that start with a given letter around a certain theme (see their recent review in the Washington Post<\/a>).<\/p>\n There’s a nifty video that’s been put together around the 15 startup finalists, so take a look below! If you’ve got a favorite, let us know below (no promises that I’ll vote for your favorites, though!)<\/p>\n