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.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_cafe