PARIS –Named journalist of the year in 2023 by GQ Men Of The Year and featured on the Forbes 30 Under 30 France list in the Media category, Hugo Travers (known as HugoDecrypte), born on April 6, 1997, in Versailles (Yvelines), is a Franco-British web video creator.

In 2015, while in his first year at Sciences Po, a prestigious university in Paris, he launched the YouTube channel "Hugo Décrypte," aiming to provide informative content with a journalistic approach tailored to young audiences through short videos. Two years later, he conducted interviews with several candidates for the 2017 French presidential election and the 2019 European elections, presenting each party's platform on his YouTube channel. He also managed to secure an interview with President Emmanuel Macron on the eve of the 2019 European elections on May 24, 2019.

What started as a university student's YouTube channel eight years ago now boasts 14 million followers across its social media platforms, with 200 million monthly views on TikTok and an additional 35 million on YouTube. HugoDecrypte's Instagram account now has more followers than Le Monde, the renowned French daily newspaper, as well as BFMTV and France24, the two most popular 24-hour news networks in France. Additionally, its daily news update is the most downloaded podcast in the country, according to the media monitor ACPM.

Despite his meteoric success and professional approach, Hugo Travers humbly declares to CNN, "What's very special is the fact that I really started as a YouTuber and I consider myself really as a YouTuber." The HugoDecrypte channel was launched with the mission to provide young French audiences with a quick and digestible way to understand the news. In 2023, he was awarded the French decoration of Chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres, managed by the Ministry of Culture, which honors "individuals who have distinguished themselves through their artistic or literary creations or their contribution to the influence of arts and letters in France and worldwide."

Travers has hosted nearly all the candidates running for president in 2022, and due to the HugoDecrypte channel's dominance among the coveted age 15 to 34 demographic, most major politicians in France, including President Emmanuel Macron, have sat down with Travers to reach a younger audience. Beyond politics, Travers' in-depth interviews have also become a sought-after platform for anyone promoting a film, book, or TV series to the Francophone world. For example, he hosted Christopher Nolan over the summer to discuss the then-Oscar frontrunner "Oppenheimer."

Seeking further growth, HugoDecrypte has expanded to a team of about 25 employees working out of a modern office in the 11th arrondissement of Paris. To reach Generation Z, Travers launched on TikTok earlier than most French media before unveiling his new media venture on March 31st, titled "Elan": a website focused on professional integration. This launch is accompanied by a platform featuring job listings aimed at connecting young people with companies. The HugoDecrypte team announced through a press release that "adaptations to other platforms are planned for the future."

Travers' new objective is thus to expand information across borders, acknowledging the challenges inherent in building a cross-cultural brand. However, he and his editor-in-chief Aleberteau believe that wherever there is social media, their model is viable. "In any country, there's a need for information. And in any country, there are young people who want to be informed," Aleberteau said.