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Cybercafes - A Dying Trend?
A not-so-anonymous Anonymous Coward asks: "I've been considering opening up a CyberCafe for a while now, and I've been searching the web for cyber cafe websites. I've found several cybercafe databases, but was disappointed to find that a majority of the sites I found were either taken over by register-this-domain pages or hadn't been updated for a couple of years. Another Cyber/Gaming Cafe I found online announced today that they were closing. So are Cyber/Internet/Gaming cafes just another bubble the net will burst, or are they actually worth investing in? Any cafe owners with experience to point one way or the other? Where are the success stories?"
As a person who likes to travel, I've only found them useful to send e-mails home whilst away. I wouldn't see the point of going to one locally when I can sup my own coffee and have WiFi broadband from the comfort of my own sofa... :)
That said, EasyEverything (http://www.easyeverything.com/), seems to run this venture rather well - although whether Stelios makes much of a profit from it is another thing. He has a shedload of the bright orange public net-access points all through Europe - and they're all pretty huge. Access is usually very cheap, at the equivalent of 1ukp/hr, but rates vary according to demand.
This is a spin-off from the "easy" group, of which EasyJet is the main money earner....
M.
Internet Cafe's are relativity popular in Australia, least in dense backpacker-esque areas (Sydney, Gold Coast, Whitsunday's, etc). I've only used Internet Cafe's in these locations because I was unable to connect with my laptop. So I guess what I'm saying is unless you expect to get allot of foot traffic from travellers, I haven't seen a market for them (again, least in Australia though I'd believe the same would go for the US).
"1984" was ment to be a warning, not a guidebook. You hear that Kim Jong-il!? BushCo?!
Well, they're probably dying in the US due to the cheaper and larger availability of high speed cable internet, not to mention the increased number of people owning personal computers. Maybe opening one up in a vacation spot so people who are visiting could pop in and e-mail friends/family, but outside the use of that, I can't think of anything.
Live life to the fullest. It's not that life is short, but that you are dead for so long.
I have to agree.
I go so I don't hear my wife bitch.
I also go because I don't want to buy the games, and I don't want to have to upgrade my machine every 6 months to run the latest and greatest.
Besides, the place I go is $2/hr. And for playing BF1942 DC or EoD with 30 foos, itz da bomb!
They sell sodas and chips. No coffee.
And, btw, I hate to have to wait on a waiting list to get to one of their 70 computers.
"Piter, too, is dead."