Internet cafes from Seoul to Shanghai are filled with paying customers playing StarCraft II, Aion, and countless other online games, while the cafe owners rake in the money. Pearl Research has attached a dollar value to this lucrative business. According to recent research published by the business intelligence and consult
ing firm, Asian Internet cafes will generate $19 billion in revenue in 2011 alone.
The report — which includes China, Korea, Taiwan, India, and Vietnam among the countries researched — stated there are more than 350,000 cafes in the included countries, even though China has shut down 130,000 Internet cafes over the last six years. The culture of cybercafes widely varies from country to country: In China, cafes are often large, including banks of more than 200 PCs and can earn upwards of $500,000 revenue in a year. Internet cafes remain an established part of entertainment culture in heavily wired Korea, where they’ve been popular for well over a decade, even though 82 percent of Korean households now own a PC. In Vietnam and India, Internet cafes are smaller, seating under 20, and chains are smaller, so gauging the actual profitability of Internet cafes across those regions is tricky.
In the future, the report notes, game publishers and operators will need to step up their game to work with cybercafes, including sending out dedicated sales teams and creating special marketing and promotions to attract their attention. The cybercafes face challenges over the long run: high overhead in real estate and labor costs, increased risk of government regulations, consumers who are taking their gaming home, and dealing with a negative reputation sometimes associated with Internet cafe gaming.
[Source: GameSpot]
