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Comparing Internet Cafe Rates Worldwide
tcd004 writes "I recently began compiling the hourly rates from Internet cafes around the world into a map. The result reveals wildly different prices, even in countries with similar economic conditions and technological development. This often puts access out of reach for large populations in developing countries who live on less than $1 per day. It seems government policies and telecom deregulation (in countries like Nigeria) are often the strongest forces determining a cafe's hourly rates. If you want to do some of your own rate hunting, take a look at sites like Cybercafes.com."
Crappy cybercafe listing on Cybercafes.com. It still lists Cyber X in Minneapolis. That place has been out of business for many years.
The site doesn't even have a function to add or modify listings. All it has is a banner ad for cheese!
Globe199
At least in Bomba, where I lived till 2002, cyber cafes cost a lot less than the $1.35 claimed... Rs.60/hour. I think Rs.25-30 is more typical.
That said, maybe its different in smaller cities where cable/DSL isn't available, adn competition hasn't driven down ISP charges as much
In Brazil, at least where I live, its hard to find a cybercafe that costs more than $1/hour.
$2.50/hr for China? Perhaps in hotels and other places that cater to businessmen or "rich" foreigners, but even in Beijing, in college areas, you can get online for 10 yuan (about $1.25)/hour at most. At some second-tier cities, the going rate is about 2 yuan (25 cents). You get exactly the same access -- the only difference is that you might be surrounded by smoking kids playing Counterstrike around you...
There's 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
Just looking at the numbers, the article seems to capture non-tourist prices. But it's important not to forget that prices are often not based on real cost, but on the customer's willingness to pay.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
I travel on a regular basis and have to work away from my hotel for very long (but sparse) hours. This leaves me much free time where I wish I could get to a net connection. The solution? Public Libraries. Almost every library in the country even remotely close to a decent sized population will have some sort of internet connection available to patrons, for *FREE* 90% of the time.
The reasons for low prices, however maybe related to the fact that minors go to internet cafes a lot to play Counter Strike, GTA etc. Obviously this is because, in Turkey, many houses don't have computer. As the minors are the main customer group, and they cannot effort expensive prices, I think math is clear.
I should also mention that, my friend's internet cafe is always full during the summer. I don't know much about the school period though.
In Tashkent, Uzbekistan (right below Kazakstan) last December, I went into a cyber cafe that was $0.30/hour. I was impressed. But of course the average salary there is $50/month. Yes, per month. Average.
I've recently been to Chile and Russia and paid less than $1 an hour in each. Nowhere near the $3 listed. Where did these guys gather their information from, tourist hotels? No matter how poor the country, internet access can only get so cheap, you still need a computer which is likely imported. Elecronics always seem to be about the same price, no matter what country you're in.
I paid about 10 UK pounds (about $18 or something) for a week at Easy Internet Cafe in London a few years ago. No time limit other than that (they closed at 2AM).
Internet cafes in South Korea have been around for a long time and their prices vary. Prices are different because they give you different choices of service. I don't know what it's like at the moment but I lived there till 2002. Usually it would be about $.75 an hour(or 1000 won) and prices wouldn't rise because there were so many internet cafes that competition was tight. I remember in some places you could do an all-nighter for about $5 (2002), or in some other places you paid about $10 and you got 12+ hours and the employee would make you a nice bowl of ramen to enjoy while chatting.
The internet cafes became what's called a 'pc bang' or a 'game bang' ('bang' means room in korea; i.e. game room). The computers in many pc bangs have good specifications in order to stay on top of the competition. I love the concept because it is so easy to arrange a night out with your friends for fragging or leveling up than doing a lan party. If one pc bang was full you just had to cross the street and go to the next one (there where many where I lived in Seoul).
Often times members of different clans of any game (Quake, CS, Rainbow six, Diablo 2, Starcraft, you name it) arrange meetings in some pc bang and rent out a whole place to have a showdown. I attended one CS game session for a clan (not that I was that good) and it was a very friendly atmosphere and it was exciting to meet the guys (and chicks) you only knew the nicknames of on CS. But that's another story.
Unfortunately, the pc bang can be used and is being used for grownups who chat with young highschool girls and 'pick' them up. I think it's terrible that there are people taking advantage of younger girls and luring them with money. It's sad to me that someone's willing to give away sex to some guy they meet for a few minutes online. But that's a moral story.
Anyways, the pc bang is truly a place of social interaction or a place where you can be left alone to do your own thing. I hope this gave some insight.
about $0.80/hr
The prices in Chile are nowhere near US$300 an hour.
In Santiago (the capital), internet access is around 400-600 pesos per hour. US$1 = CLP$650, so we are talking 60 - 90 US cents. I've also seen these rates on the beach side towns and in the south (on the Island of Chiloe, currently isolated from the mainland due to band weather, but still with reasonably priced internet).
In places like San Pedro de Atacama in the North and Puerto Natales in the South, both remote places heavily infested with gringo touriests, you might push $1000 an hour, so US$1.50 max.
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
For nearly every country we collected prices from at least 10 cafes. We eliminated the most expensive and least expensvie cafes, based on the assumption that these prices reflected tourist-type locations. (note that many "back-alley" or "grey market" cafes probably didn't make our study. These locations often have lower prices) At this point, we found it would be innacurate to take an average of the remaining prices. (the averages were too often different from the most common price, since even the prices left varied widely. So, we used the most common value or mode.
The $1 figure is from the United Nations Millenium Development Goals Indicators database.
The cybercafes.com site was created in about 1996, and abandoned in 2000, I think. I found cybercafes.com in my bookmarks of client sites from 1997, but the domain obviously changed hands since then. A quick glance through their database shows a couple of cafes I know haven't been around since 2000 or 2001. Their entries for Belgium and France still show francs for currency, so it isn't just Ireland.
Its a cobweb site. Nothing to see here, move along, move along. There will be a repost of this article over the weekend by CmdrTaco.
the AC
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
Here in Venezuela the rate is 0.60$ (without subsidies)
Gasoline costs 0.03$ per liter (gasoline is cheaper than coke and water).
A BigMac costs 2$ (too expensive for the crap you get).
A Whoper costs 3$ (this is a good meal).
A Grand Cherokee Limited 2004 costs NaN$ (30,000$ basic model, ouch!)
BTW, the minimum wage is 90$ a month, a graduated computer engineer (at least me!) makes 6,000$ a year.