Research on Internet Cafe Essay Example

establishment of this type, called Cyberia,[1] opened on September 1, 1994 in London, England.

The first public, commercial American Internet cafe was conceived and opened by Jeff Anderson in August 1994, at Infomart in Dallas, Texas and was called The High Tech Cafe. [1] Next, in the USA, three Internet cafes opened in the East Village neighborhood of New York City: Internet Cafetm, opened by Arthur Perley, the @ Cafe, and the Heroic Sandwich. [2] A variation of Internet cafe called PC bang (similar to LAN gaming center) became extremely popular in South Korea when StarCraft came out in 1997.

Although computer and broadband penetration per capita were very high, young people went to PC bangs to play multiplayer games. [pic] A solar powered Internet cafe in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua.

Internet cafes are located worldwide, 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 cafe business model is the LAN gaming center, used for multiplayer gaming. These cafes 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 cafes. The use of Internet cafes for multiplayer gaming is particularly popular in certain areas of Asia like China, Taiwan, South Korea and The Philippines.

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 20 cents per minute. [3] 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. 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. Cafes have also been in the forefront of promoting new technologies, for example, the car in 1950s California. As internet access is in

increasing demand, many pubs, bars and cafes have terminals, so the distinction between the Internet cafe and normal cafe is eroded.

In some, particularly European countries, the number of pure Internet cafes is decreasing since more and more normal cafes offer the same services.

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.

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. In July 2008 the worlds first Internet Cafe on the Internet was released in Karlskoga, Sweden. Virtual Internet Cafe [2] use the same principles as a regular Internet Cafe, but is completely based on the

Internet. Users of Virtual Internet Cafe remote control designated Cafe computers instead of using their own computers on the Internet.

This gives the users the option to be completely anonymous on the Internet while protecting their own computers from malicious software and spywares. [pic] To combat terrorism, Italian government requires positive identification from all users of Internet cafes. (Florence, May 2006) In places with censoring regimes such as 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.

[citation needed] Copyright violations by clients are cause for concern by Internet Cafe Operators.