Echobox releases the French Election Tracker (FET)

LONDON - March 8, 2017 - PRLog -- Echobox, the artificial intelligence service for media and publishing companies, today announced the release of the French Election Tracker. The FET is an hourly tracker of the interest that each French presidential election candidate attracts online, based on the news consumption behaviour of millions of French voters. Journalists, politicians and the general public can use the FET to quickly assess the current state of the election campaign and to trace a candidate's fortunes over time. Echobox helps media and publishing companies optimise and automate the distribution of content across digital platforms, and is offering free use of the FET data to journalists, academics and the public.

The FET shows which candidate is attracting the most interest (both positive and negative) at any given moment. The FET features the five main candidates in the French presidential election of 2017: François Fillon (Les Républicains), Benoît Hamon (Parti Socialiste), Emmanuel Macron (En Marche), Jean-Luc Mélenchon (La France Insoumise) and Marine Le Pen (Front National).

Echobox's team of world-class engineers and data scientists developed the interactive FET. "We have processed vast amounts of data. This has boosted the performance of our AI and given us a unique position versus the competition," comments CTO Dr Marc Fletcher. For Echobox CEO Antoine Amann, who previously worked at the Financial Times, the FET is one of the ways in which Echobox gives back to and supports journalists. "Journalists do an essential job, which is getting harder every day, and our mission at Echobox is to help them report the news. Tools like the FET are one way in which we do this," Amann says. Echobox also publishes the Social Media Index, which measures the web traffic generated by social media on any given day since 2014.

Developed in collaboration with world-leading publishers and academic institutions, the proprietary AI technology offered by Echobox is proven to save publishers time while delivering valuable increases in traffic. Echobox generates on average a 31% gain in referral traffic from Facebook. The performance of its AI has helped it secure deals with publishers including Le Monde, Le Figaro and Axel Springer. "Social media optimisation requires a more scientific approach. Since using Echobox we have seen a major upswing in our traffic," says Anne Pican, Digital Publisher at Le Figaro. Rebecca Hanke of German daily Stuttgarter Zeitung says that "social media is more than just posting links to articles. Facebook in particular requires a lot of experimentation. Echobox gives us the time we need to do this."

The French Election Tracker and the Social Media Index can be accessed on the Echobox Showcase Page.