Internet cafe

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E-Corner First internet cafe, was located at Waverley station

An Internet cafe or cybercafe is a place where one can use a computer with Internet access for a fee, usually per hour or minute; sometimes one can have unmetered access with a pass for a day or month, etc. It may or may not serve as a regular cafe as well, with food and drinks being served.

1 History
2 Characteristics
3 Internet cafés in China
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] History

The concept and name, Cybercafe, was invented at the beginning of 1994 by Ivan Pope. Commissioned to develop an Internet event for an arts weekend at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, Pope wrote a proposal outlining the concept of a cafe with Internet access from the tables. The event was run over the weekend of March 12-13 1994 during the 'Towards the Aesthetics of the Future' event.

In June 1994, The Binary Cafe, Canada's first Internet cafe, opened in Toronto, Ontario. During the 5th International Symposium on Electronic Art, ISEA, in August 1994, an establishment called CompuCafe was established in Helsinki, Finland, featuring both Internet access and a robotic beer seller.

Inspired partly by the ICA event, a commercial establishment of this type, called Cyberia, opened on September 1, 1994 in London, England. The first American Internet cafe, creatively named Internet Cafe, opened in early 1995 in the East Village neighborhood of New York City.

[edit] Characteristics

Internet cafes are located world-wide, and many people use them when traveling to access webmail and instant messaging services to keep in touch with family and friends. Apart from travelers, in many developing countries Internet cafes are the primary form of Internet access for citizens as a shared-access model is more affordable than personal ownership of equipment. A variation on the Internet café business model is the LAN gaming center, used for multiplayer gaming. These cafés have several computer stations connected to a LAN. The connected computers are custom-assembled for gameplay, supporting popular multiplayer games. This is reducing the need for video arcades and arcade games, many of which are being closed down or merged into Internet cafés. The use of Internet cafes for multiplayer gaming is particularly popular in certain areas of Asia, notably South Korea, where gaming cafés are called PC bang. These cafés are also popular in Taiwan and Japan.

There are also Internet kiosks – Internet access points in public places like public libraries, airport halls, sometimes just for brief use while standing. Many hotels, resorts, and cruise ships offer Internet access for the convenience of their guests; this can take various forms, such as in-room wireless access, or a web browser that uses the in-room television set for its display (usually in this case the hotel provides a wireless keyboard on the assumption that the guest will use it from the bed), or computer(s) that guests can use, either in the lobby or in a business center. As with telephone service, in the US most mid-price hotels offer Internet access from a computer in the lobby to registered guests without charging an additional fee, while fancier hotels are more likely to charge for the use of a computer in their "business center."

For those traveling by road in North America, many truck stops have Internet kiosks, for which a typical charge is around 25 cents per minute.

Internet cafes are a natural evolution of the traditional cafe. Cafes started as places for information exchange, and have always been used as places to read the paper, send postcards home, play traditional or electronic games, chat to friends, find out local information. Cafés have also been in the forefront of promoting new technologies, for example, the car in 1950s California.

Internet cafes come in a wide range of styles, reflecting their location, main clientele, and sometimes, the social agenda of the proprietors. In the early days they were important in projecting the image of the Internet as a 'cool' phenomena.

To combat terrorism, Italian government requires positive identification from all users of Internet cafes. (Florence, May 2006)

As internet access is in increasing demand, many pubs, bars and cafes have terminals, so the distinction between the Internet cafe and normal café is eroded. In some, particularly European countries, the number of pure Internet cafes is decreasing since more and more normal cafés offering the same service. However, there are European countries where the total number of publicly accessible terminals is also decreasing. An example of such a country is Germany. The cause of this development is a combination of complicated regulation, relatively high internet penetration rates, the widespread use of notebooks and PDAs and the relatively high number of WLAN hotspots. Many pubs, bars and cafes in Germany offer WLAN, but no terminals since the Internet cafe regulations do not apply if no terminal is offered. Additionally, the use of Internet cafes for multiplayer gaming is very difficult in Germany since the Internet cafe regulations and a second type of regulations which was originally established for video arcade centers applies to this kind of Internet cafes. It is, for example, forbidden for people under the age of 18 to enter such an Internet cafe, although particularly people under 18 are an important group of customers for this type of Internet cafe.

In places with censoring regimes such as mainland China or Singapore, Internet cafes are closely controlled. In some places computers are in booths to allow private access to pornography. In some areas of Los Angeles they are controlled because they attract street gangs. While most Internet cafes are private businesses many have been set up to help bridge the 'digital divide', providing computer access and training to those without home access. For example, the UK government has supported the setting up of 6000 telecentres.

[edit] Internet cafés in China

According to “Survey of China Internet Café Industry” by the Ministry of Culture, in 2005: China has 110,000 Internet cafes, with more than 1,000,000 people working in this area, contributing 18,500,000,000 Yuan to China’s GDP. More than 70% Internet café visitors are from 18 years old to 30. 90% are male, 65% unmarried, 54% hold college degree or higher. More than 70% visitors play computer games. 20% of China’s Internet users go to InternetCafe.

Milestones:

Before 1995. An Internet Café called 3C+T appeared in Shanghai, suspected as the first one in China (Chinese people are still looking for the first Internet Cafe). Price: 20 Yuan per hour
1995~1998. China's Internet Cafés reached a period of fast development. Playing unconnected games is the main purpose of café users. Price: 15~20 Yuan per hour
1998~2000. Booming era of Internet cafes. Competition became more and more fierce.
2000~2002. Booming era of Internet games. First Internet chain café occurred in 2001. Nine people were killed in an Internet café fire in Beijing in June, 2002. A new regulation was released by the state government, giving the Ministry of Culture full responsibility of licensing Internet cafes.
After 2002, heavy censorships were imposed, including real name registration. At the end of 2004, more than 70,000 Internet cafes were closed in a nationwide campaign.