Paris (AFP)

Launched in early 2018 on the model of Brut and AJ +, the young online media Loopsider, 100% video, has just broken virality records with the shocking images of a black man beaten up by police officers.

"What a day. This morning, we never thought our video was going to have such an impact. Over 12 million views ... We are thinking very much of Michel tonight. We have touched on something very sensitive in French society. Provided it lasts, "commented on Twitter the editor of the young media, Camille Christophel.

Published Thursday morning, the subject has been viewed 12.4 million times on Twitter and has been shared approximately 380,000 times, according to the web and social media monitoring platform Visibrain, already becoming one of the most viral videos on Twitter in France.

On Instagram, the video has nearly 5 million views and on Facebook, it was shared 74,000 times in 24 hours.

The subject, which shows a music producer, Michel Zecler, beaten up by police officers in the entrance of a music studio in Paris, reignited the debate on police violence and aroused the indignation of a good part of the political class as well as many personalities, in particular in the sporting world.

Behind this chilling scoop, we find the investigative journalist David Perrotin, former of the JDD, Rue89 and BuzzFeed France.

It was he who revealed in the summer of 2019 that the Defender of Rights had taken action to open an investigation into the disappearance of young Steve Maia Caniço in Nantes during the Fête de la Musique, against the backdrop of a police operation controversial.

"The investigation was present from the launch of the project in January 2018. Our goal was to pull by the hand those who no longer went to newsstands and were only on social networks to tell them in pictures the stories that make the news ", explains to AFP Giuseppe de Martino, one of the co-founders of Loopsider, former managing director of Dailymotion.

- For "millennials" -

At his side at the launch, Johan Hufnagel, currently editorial director of Loopsider, former number two of Liberation, Arnaud Maillard, former digital boss at Discovery (Eurosport) and Bernard Mourad, former head of the media division of the SFR group, who has since left the ship.

In the meantime, the Mediaschool group (CB News, Strategies) acquired an 8% stake, following a fundraising of 3 million euros in early 2019.

Like Brut, AJ + or Konbini, Loopsider has launched on social networks with videos designed for mobile phones, dealing with societal, environmental and health themes, intended for "millenials", and already has its English and Spanish version. .

The young media has 70,000 followers on Twitter, 1.6 million on Facebook and 385,000 on Instagram.

Today it employs around thirty people, half of whom are journalists and six are "data scientists", data specialists who work in support of the editorial staff.

A year ago, Loopsider launched "Period", a new column on the body, gender and place of young people in society that targets young women in particular and has more than 270,000 subscribers on Instagram.

To finance itself, the platform has chosen to produce content for brands and it works: with around sixty large corporate clients such as Carrefour, Veolia, Crédit Agricole, Loopsider will be profitable early next year.

"Profitability, three years after our launch, we are very proud. No billionaire has invested in us, this is good news for the future of the media in France. Our economic model is working remarkably well," says Giuseppe with satisfaction. by Martino.

© 2020 AFP