Leboncoin announced in a press release the departure of Antoine Jouteau, CEO of Leboncoin and historic leader of the platform, an announcement which comes a few months after the takeover of Adevinta, the parent company of Leboncoin, by the investment companies Permira and Blackstone in October 2024. Jacob Aqraou, Executive Chair of the Adevinta board, takes over closely collaboration with the management team, while leading the search for a successor.
The person concerned, for his part, chose to deliver, on his LinkedIn profile, a more personal and emotional message, looking back on sixteen years spent building what has become one of the greatest successes in French digital. “It’s rare to align a profession, a company and a mission to this extent,” he writes, a formula that sums up the coherence and constancy of an exceptional leader.
Sixteen years of building a popular and lasting brand
Joining Leboncoin in 2008, Antoine Jouteau then joined a still nascent structure, a subsidiary of the Norwegian group Schibsted. In less than two decades, he will have helped transform a classified ads site into a central player in French economic life. Under his leadership, the platform has established itself as a daily reflex: more than 30 million unique visitors each month, strong verticals in real estate, automobiles, employment and services, and a brand that has become one of the favorites of the French.
Leboncoin has been able to embody a unique model, based on simplicity, trust and proximity. Far from the globalized ambitions of most platforms, the group has retained a pragmatic approach to digital, focused on use and local value. “Connect, create opportunities, make optimistic”: the words of Antoine Jouteau in his opening message summarize the philosophy of a company that has made human connection its raison d’être.
From marketing to European governance
A graduate of SKEMA Business School and Paris-Dauphine University, Antoine Jouteau began his career in telecoms and IT (Compaq, IBM, TDF) before joining PagesJaunes, where he headed digital marketing. This seminal passage will give him the keys to understanding the levers of online visibility and traffic, in a context of rapid transformation of digital uses.
He joined Leboncoin in 2008, became general director of the group in 2015, then CEO in 2022 when the site became a subsidiary of Adevinta, an entity resulting from the split from the Schibsted group. Between 2022 and 2024, he will serve as CEO of Adevinta, the listed parent company, before returning to the helm of Adevinta France in October 2024.
At the same time, he chairs the European Tech Alliance (EUTA), a federation of large European digital companies, where he defends a responsible and regulated approach to digital technology in the face of American giants.
A leader going against the grain of startup culture
Far from the media CEO model, Antoine Jouteau will have cultivated a form of constancy rare in the French ecosystem. Faithful to his company, he has supported Leboncoin over the long term, transforming the platform without ever betraying its original spirit. This continuity has allowed the group to anchor itself in the real economy, by combining performance and sobriety. Since 2014, Leboncoin has integrated artificial intelligence building blocks into its search and connection algorithms, while maintaining a simple and universal user experience.
In his farewell message, he evokes “the offices steeped in history on rue du Faubourg Saint-Martin” and the inscription “To the working classes” which adorns the facade. A symbolic reference, recalling the popular vocation of the site to restore purchasing power, create links, offer concrete solutions to millions of users.
And now ?
Antoine Jouteau evokes in his message “the beginning of a new exploration”. He cites democracy, education, consumption, ecology, so many themes which suggest a future commitment at the crossroads of tech and societal issues.
His departure marks the end of an era for Leboncoin, that of embodied and controlled growth. The company, now part of the Adevinta group, must continue its trajectory in a very challenged digital environment, and under the governance of a new pool of shareholders.
There remains a legacy, that of having demonstrated that we could build a digital champion without giving up simplicity, humanity and the service mission.
