What 25 years in digital taught me about online visibility — and why what's happening in 2026 is different from everything else

1999: the web as playground

In 1999, I founded Chewing Com with a simple conviction: the web was going to change everything. Not in 10 years. Now.

We were a handful of French agencies who understood that Flash — this plugin that allowed creating interactive experiences in the browser — was going to transform digital communication. Within months, Chewing Com grew from 2 to 45 people. We worked for Pepsi, Sony, Warner, L'Oréal. We won the World Flash Award in Vienna in 1999 with "Captain Chewing Goes to Infect" — first prize worldwide in our category.

What I learned from that era: when a new technology creates a rupture in how people interact with information, those who master that technology first take a lead that lasts years. Not weeks. Years.

In 2002, Chewing Com was acquired by Carat Interactive, an Aegis Media subsidiary. I was 30. I had also understood something essential about digital ruptures: they arrive faster than people think, and more slowly than enthusiasts announce. But they arrive.

2003-2010: the dictatorship of Google

After the acquisition, I watched a second rupture form — quieter than Flash, but infinitely more structural.

Google was becoming the single gateway to all online information. Natural search — SEO — was going to become the major visibility challenge for the next 20 years. Agencies that understood this in 2003-2005 built dominant positions that earned them decades of growth.

What I learned from that era: online visibility is not a given. It's built on the rules of the dominant channel of the moment. When that channel changes, the rules change. Brands that massively invested in yellow pages in 1995 weren't automatically visible on Google in 2005. Everything had to be rebuilt.

The lesson I draw from this today: every time a new discovery channel emerges, there's a window — typically 18 to 36 months — during which agile players can build a structural lead over established players. After this window, positions crystallize and the cost to catch up becomes prohibitive.

2010-2017: social media and mobile — two simultaneous ruptures

Between 2010 and 2017, I experienced two ruptures simultaneously — and watched many players miss one or both.

Social media first appeared to be an additional communication channel. It revealed itself to be a reputation system — a way for brands to exist in their customers' conversations, not just in their search results. Brands that understood this early built communities that earned them massive organic visibility.

Mobile seemed to be a reduced version of the desktop web. It revealed itself to be a complete redesign of user experience — new interfaces, new consumption habits, new quality criteria. Brands that built mobile-first experiences took a considerable lead over those that adapted their desktop site.

What I learned from that era: digital ruptures don't replace existing channels — they complement and reorganize them. Google didn't kill yellow pages overnight. Mobile didn't kill desktop. Social media didn't kill SEO. But each rupture permanently modified the hierarchy of channels and redistributed visibility positions.

It's between 2013 and 2017 that I co-founded several projects — including Biva.com, a social video platform — that confirmed an intuition: video was going to become the dominant format of online content. What has happened since has largely confirmed this intuition.

2017-2020: blockchain and a lesson on timing

In 2017, I co-founded Block Expert with Jean-Philippe Raynaud. Our conviction: blockchain was going to transform how companies manage trust, traceability and data authentication.

This conviction was right. Our timing was ahead of the enterprise market. Block Expert produced remarkable client cases — an IBM reference, an Orange client case, a citation in the official European Commission European Blockchain Sandbox report. But the enterprise market wasn't yet ready to absorb blockchain technology at the scale we anticipated.

What I learned from this experience: being right too early about a technological rupture is not enough. You need to be right at the right time — when the market is mature enough to buy the solution but early enough that competition isn't yet established. This is the window I call "the right moment" — and this is precisely the window opening today on AI visibility.

Block Expert remains active. You can see the full Block Expert case and its AI visibility score on our case studies page. But this experience made me more precise in reading technological ruptures: I now look for signals indicating the market is ready — not just that the technology is available.

2026: why this rupture is different from all the others

I've seen five major digital ruptures in 25 years. Each had its own characteristics. The AI rupture is different from all previous ones on three fundamental points — and this is what makes it both more urgent and more strategic.

It's faster. Flash took 3 years to become a standard. Google took 5 years to dominate search. Social media took 4 years to become essential for brands. ChatGPT reached 100 million users in 2 months. Perplexity quadrupled its user base in 12 months. The adoption curve is unprecedented.

It simultaneously changes discovery and recommendation. All previous ruptures changed either how brands were found (SEO), or how they were talked about (social media), or how they were accessed (mobile). The AI rupture changes both simultaneously — and merges them. AI finds, evaluates and recommends in a single answer. This is a change of nature, not degree.

It favors players who act now. The window between "emerging rupture" and "established standard" is closing faster than ever. For SEO, this window was 5 to 7 years. For social media, 3 to 4 years. For AI visibility, I estimate this window at 18 to 24 months from today. After that, positions will crystallize and the cost to catch up will be prohibitive — exactly like SEO backlinks today.

What I did with Storyzee — and why

Storyzee has existed since 2020. For 4 years, we built digital presences for startups, SMEs and enterprise clients — websites, content, SEO, social media, video. We did good work. We have satisfied clients. We have solid references.

But for the past 18 months, I've been observing something I've only seen 4 times in my career — a rupture of this magnitude forming in real time. And this time, unlike 2017 with blockchain, the market is ready. The tools exist. Companies are looking for answers. Demand is there, ahead of supply.

That's why I'm fully repositioning Storyzee on AI visibility. Not because it's a trend to ride. Because it's the real problem of my clients in 2026 — and I have 25 years of experience, the method and the tool to address it.

I could have waited for the market to be more mature, standards more established, competition clearer. I could have built the perfect tool before offering it. That's what I would have done at 25.

At 50, I've learned that windows close. That the right moment to act on a rupture is when it's still emerging — not when it's obvious.

What this concretely means for you

If you've read this far, you're not here by chance. You've probably run the test — you searched your brand in ChatGPT or Perplexity and didn't like what you saw. Or you haven't run the test yet, but you have the intuition that something is changing.

That intuition is right.

AI visibility is not a technical subject reserved for digital specialists. It's a fundamental business challenge — because the way your prospects find you is changing, and brands that adapt now will take a lead that competitors will take years to close.

I founded Storyzee on a simple conviction: entrepreneurs and executives who understand this rupture now — not in 18 months — are those who will emerge with a lasting structural advantage. This is what I've seen happen at every major digital rupture since 1999.

The difference this time is speed. The window is open. It won't be for long.