You're able to get Wi-Fi basically anywhere for free these days and people probably wouldn't bother using internet outside their own homes, so I'm just curious if Internet Cafe's are still popular or not, or if they even exist anymore.
Companies who offer Free-Wifi, only offer the most garbage and slow internet imaginable. Would people have interest in an internet-cafe where each individual person could get High-Data speeds (High-End NBN Speeds), and anonymous internet?
Yes, if you are on the road and need a printer . Needed one in nz couple of weeks ago.
They exist, most certainly, they are not as popular as they once were .
I know 1 that definitely exists right now (pass it regularly walking by), they sell computer parts and do pc repairs etc also, as well as about 6 pc there for public use by the hour etc.
In recent times, (couple of years ago) I know of at least 1 other locally, with much more computers, also similar in that they also do computer repairs and advertise virus removal etc. When I used them, they were quite popular with teenagers for gaming, they had the games installed ready to go. Probably still more popular for teens and young adults, a place oustide their home they can let loose with their gaming (often heard them angry yelling swearing over headset). I think there is still 1 in Sydney also near central, also acts as I think travel agent type thing for backpackers.
They probably still around quite alot, but all as multi-tasking business, rather than just an internet cafe.
You're able to get Wi-Fi basically anywhere for free these days
Companies who offer Free-Wifi, only offer the most garbage and slow internet imaginable.
Speed issues shouldn't be your main concern with free wi-fi, it should be internet security. If you are accessing free wi-fi you might as well just have all your passwords printed out on a t-shirt transfer.
They are, but they running now as gaming stations. I had a bit of an issue finding one in Sydney when I was visiting my cousin, because although they had decent computers they didn't come with the games. You were expected to have your own steam account to play anything.
From what I saw they were quite popular with 'The Asian Crowd'.
MC Net, Cydus, N2C, yes they still exist
Beyond the gaming cafes you still see wherever international students frequent, there are still internet kiosks around the place, such as in the Royal Randwick shopping centre.
Ironically, the only people I ever see using those kiosks are older male vagrants, who probably can't afford the $2 per 20 minute charge to begin with (though cheaper by the hour) and are booted from the library at 6 pm on weekdays (7 pm Thu) and 4 pm on weekends (the kiosks run until closing time, 10 pm).
Unlike the good ol' 90s, real estate space has become far more lucrative than an IBM-compatible Pentium Personal Computer and a high-kilobaud connection to the world-wide-web, but I still feel sorry for the older guys I often witness checking out mildly naughty pictures in a public space.
TW@ was the best back in gta.
Yea two new ones popped at Kingsford in Sydney. One is a bit older now like maybe a year or more old and its still going. The other is more towards Kensington and its a few months old.
My mates use to the older net cafe that was in Kingsford. I done my year 10 work experience at an internet cafe back in the days lol.
Multiplayer games are becoming more popular and it will continue this way but there is so much competition between PCs and Consoles some cafes offer both.
Also I guess internet cafes use to be popular because our net was bad so we played over lan but now with NBN roll out (I Don't get mine for a few more years) this has changed.
Given how varied the internet in Australia is, I could see value in finding a suburb that has terrible internet speeds and offering a high speed internet solution somehow. That could mean paying for fibre to be run (assuming the local exchange can support it) or using one of the point to point companies to provide high-speed internet. Whether this be for gaming, running updates on their computer that would take hours at their house but only an hour at a internet cafe or dropping in to download a tv show for offline viewing once a week.
Also a lot of people don't have printers and sometimes need to print. Especially backpackers needing to print boarding passes or even just travellers.
As others have said making money off a stand-alone internet cafe probably wouldn't be realistic but providing highspeed internet and other services could be worth a look.
Last time was gaming at a LAN cafe with a group of months was about 5 months ago. It was relatively empty besides a caucasian old man researching a Thailand trip with explicated images.
I have one downstairs from my home and it still seems to be popular with students. Esp with gaming. No matter what time of the night I come down, there's still people in there.
Given the low charge rate, the high costs of the machines and the high costs of the lease, I can't see how they're making any money - unless it's a drug front.
Very hard to come by in Nakhon Phanom Thailand. Get your own sim card and WiFi
There are some internet cafes in smaller arcade malls if you don't want to go McDonalds/Starbucks etc and also now setup as cyber gaming rooms to either play online or LAN.