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."

Comments

Internet Cafes are dying

[jZnat]

Now that broadband is a cheap commodity and it isn't hard to get a high-end PC that can run pretty much any game as of now, Internet Cafes are becoming more and more useless. Sure, they are sometimes helpful when you're on the go, but that is also solved by notebooks, PDAs, and cell phones.

Who remembers the good ol' days hanging out at Internet Cafes, playing LAN games with friends, browsing with "super-fast" internet speeds, and just overall hanging out at those places? It was great!

Re:Internet Cafes are dying

[arieswind]

they might be dying in america, but they are still majorly profitable in place like korea and other places where the normal people cant afford a computer

I'd suggest...

[Otter]

This is contrary to what seems to be the political slant of that site, but it seems to me that drawing conclusions about the affordabilty of Internet access by looking at the poorest of the poor in a given country seems unproductive.

1) In the short- and medium-term, the question is what kind of access middle-class and upper-class people have. There seems to be some obsession with getting illiterate farmers technology that the average person in wealthy countries doesn't have, but to my mind that's far less relevant than the overall level of computer use and access.

2) This analysis also ignores numbers. A single, dirt-cheap cyber-cafe provides far less access than 50 expensive, well-maintained ones, and it's the higher prices that allow greater numbers and decent tech and maintenance. Again, I suspect I'm going against the political grain of that site by saying so.

Re:In countries with $1/day salaries

[arieswind]

Keep in mind that although they only make 1$/day, it probably costs a whole lot less to live in those countries, us americans have the highest cost of living in the world

Several questions...

[GillBates0]

What do the Gray areas on the World Map indicate? Most of Europe is gray, and the key does not explain the meaning of this color.

The page linked to from "under $1 a day" does not carry information/statistics about specific countries, but provides only an overview by continent. I'm a little skeptical about the "Percentage of population living below $1.00" - according to the map, only 5 countries: Nicaragua, India, Namibia, Ghana and Kenya qualify as "dark red". I would suspect this is not the case - Pakistan and other fareastern countries for example should be in this range, rather than the green (developed) range.

And again, I'm not sure how useful the "under $1.00 per day" statistic is, because it most certainly does not take into consideration, the standard of living - a loaf of bread costs about $2.00 in the US and 25c in other countries I know.

Just my vulcan $0.02.

Re:Is smoking allowed?

[InfiniteWisdom]

How many businesses would let me stay if I came in and started spraying skunk-juice around? That is exactly the effect that smokers have on the rest of us. Just stand with a group of smokers for a while and your clothes, hair and everything are reeking of smoke for the rest of the day.

You can smoke all you want... do it in a space suit so you don't stink up the place for the rest of us, mm kay?

Hi, I've misinterpreted my data into a "story"

[raehl]

In related news, a study has shown that the high price of luxary cars puts them out of reach of large populations in developing countries.

Hell, internet cafe rates put internet access (through a cafe anyway) outside the reach of large populations of AMERICANS. Newsflash: Stuff isn't free, and poor people can't buy non-essential stuff.

Slashdot: The Obvious for Nerds. Stuff any idiot with a little bit of common sense already knows.

Segway?

[Atario]

And the nice thing about subsidies, from the government's point of view, is that it makes an easy segway to regulation and monitoring.

Do you mean subsidies are an expensive toy which gets you to the destination, but you could far more cheaply, and with the same ease, do the same thing some other way? Then yeah, they do make great Segways to those things.

(It's spelled "segue", people. That said, you make a valid point -- either (Seg)way.)

Re:In countries with $1/day salaries

[MichiganDan]

Economic growth is the only way to raise standards of living in developing countries -- or any country for that matter. The Solow Growth Model explains that this is a function of capital-labor ratio and population growth, but technological growth can impact this as well.

In order to have growth, access to the rest of the world is pretty much a prerequisite, as is some element of a knowledge economy. For these to occur, access to the Internet is essential the way that the telephone was 50 years ago.

So Internet access impacts food, clothing, and shelter. Western countries can give handouts and solve the problem for the time being, or we can help promote Internet access and solve the problem permanently.

Moreover, many people in the US and EU do not have enough food, clothing, or shelter. Does this mean that we should ignore science and technology until everybody does? No rational economist would argue this.

There is a good deal of research that shows that deregulation of telecoms leads to wider access at lower prices. (Examples can be found in Turkey, Argentina, and Ghana.) So the best thing that developing countries can do is liberalize their telecom infrastructure and stimulate investment in telecoms and IT. Does this preclude subsidies? Of course not. We subsidize in the US and it's a good thing. And it's a good thing in developing countries.

Re:In countries with $1/day salaries

[atari2600]

The hell it does. You would be lucky to live for a day in Bombay for 1$. Prices have gone up son.

Chile at $3 an hour?

[Anonymous Coward]

Chile at $3 an hour? Yeah right.

I was in Chile last January, the internet cafes were _much_ cheaper then that.

I have to strongly question where they got these statistics, and why they chose the countries that they've chosen. Then again, I guess that 99% of all statistics are made up...

A Map of Nonsense

[Pakup]

I've used internet services in China, Vietnam and Russia and the rates shown on that map for those countries -- US$2.50 to US$3.00 -- bear no relationship to reality; they're pure nonsense.

Current rates in China are about RMB2/hour. That's US$0.25/hour, a tenth of what's shown. Maybe less at times -- I've paid as low as RMB1 -- and maybe a bit more, particularly for an LCD screen or such. But regardless of price, it's always broadband and always pretty quick.

That such a prestigious publication as Foreign Policy would host such a spurious study is dumbfounding.

Instead of posting excuses here, the author ought to be withdrawing the study and re-doing it properly. The results might surprise him.