SoylentNews

takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Where Are All the Internet Cafes Going in Asia? [wccftech.com]

Rewind the clock 20 years and walk down a major street in Asia, and you'll likely see a sign advertising an Internet Cafe. "網吧", "网吧", "Kafe Internet", "PC 뱅", "อินเทอร์เน็ตคาเฟ่"; these were all signs offering anyone from the everyman to the wayward traveller a chance to connect to the World Wide Web or engage in virtual battle with Zombies, Orcs, or the Protoss.

[...] Despite all signs that the internet cafe industry should be alive and well within Asia, the data shows otherwise. Tax data [mof.gov.tw] from Taiwan's Ministry of Finance has the number of internet cafes dropping by over 50% since 2011.

Over in China, it's a decline though not as pronounced: [chinabaogao.com] the number of internet cafes continues to trickle downwards, having peaked in 2016 at approximately 150,000 and hitting 138,000 establishments in 2018. Local analysts believe the industry will continue to decline by 4.5% year-over-year.

Down in Singapore, the capital of rich-world Asia, the trend continues [youth.sg]: only 11 are currently operating in the city-state of 4.5 million down from 20 a few years ago.

However, in the developing world, this trend towards oblivion starts to slow down. While in Indonesia, the number of internet cafes has declined but stabilized [academia.edu], in contrast, in the Philippines this number has grown substantially in the past decade.

Internet café [wikipedia.org] (not to be confused with using the Wi-Fi at Starbucks).

Related: Man Dies in Taiwan after 3-day Online Gaming Binge [soylentnews.org]

Original Submission