Comparing Internet Cafe Rates Worldwide 273
tcd004 writes "I recently began compiling the hourly rates from Internet cafes around the world into a map. The result reveals wildly different prices, even in countries with similar economic conditions and technological development. This often puts access out of reach for large populations in developing countries who live on less than $1 per day. It seems government policies and telecom deregulation (in countries like Nigeria) are often the strongest forces determining a cafe's hourly rates. If you want to do some of your own rate hunting, take a look at sites like Cybercafes.com."
Government Subsidies (Score:5, Interesting)
No Korea? (Score:5, Interesting)
Speaking of which (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, I know that spammers use Internet cafes to do their dirty deeds, but the spam-filters should somehow have the ability to detect a genuine e-mail sent using the webmail service.
I walk by several Internet cafés every day... (Score:4, Interesting)
Prices at Internet cafés are perhaps more interesting for tourists than anyone else. Then again, isn't the point of being on holiday to get away from it all, including (and especially?) the computer?
In countries with $1/day salaries (Score:4, Interesting)
eZinternet Cafe (Score:5, Interesting)
Australia? (Score:4, Interesting)
I've never seen internet cafe rates that high here, the most I've paid is $5AUS an hour, and that was in a music store that also provided free coffee.
South Korea (Score:5, Interesting)
Over here in Oslo, I see lots of Internet cafés and they're almost always empty.
Re:Is smoking allowed? (Score:0, Interesting)
Re:Government Subsidies (Score:4, Interesting)
Responses (Score:5, Interesting)
1. "Hey, I was in X country and the price was cheaper/more expensive!"
Yes, prices vary dramatically across nearly every country. When we compiled this data we were seeking out numbers that best represented the most common price in a particular country. For instance, in Saudi Arabia, you can pay $15 U.S for access if you want, but you can also find places who offer it for $3. These numbers are in no way meant to accuraly represent every price of every internet cafe in every country.
2. What do the grey areas represent? Aren't there more countries with high poverty levels?
Grey countries were not included in this survey. Data may have existed for them, but this was originally published in print, and we had a limted amount of space. And yes, many, many other countries live on less than $1 per day. We simply picked a representative sampling.
3. Why do people who live on $1 per day need to worry about internet access?
Good question. First of all, don't literally think of "$1 per day" to mean just that. The point of this exercise was to show that Cafe prices don't often serve their local populations, due to the fact that they're too expensive. The $1 figure is simply an effective way to point out countries with large populations of people living in poverty.
Why do poor people need the internet? Well, often the internet is considered to be a great democratizing and equalizing force. The people who most need equalizing are people who live in poverty. If they can't afford to get on the internet, then how is it improving their lives? Maybe through indirect means?
In any case, our goal was simply to inspire people to ask questions like these. We seem to have been successful. Thanks for your comments!
Tcd004
Re:In countries with $1/day salaries (Score:2, Interesting)
How old is this information? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Responses (Score:5, Interesting)
purchase an hour of Internet cafe.
I.e. in the U.S.A. (average wage ~ $15/hour), the cost would be 0.3 hours. In Namibia (average wage
~ $1/hour) the cost would be 2.5 hours, etc.
Mexico and Nigeria (Score:3, Interesting)
Are we really sure we want any more Nigerians on the internet? Haven't they abused it enough?
But on a more serious note, back in '98, I helped open the first two internet cafes in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Playa is a pretty big tourist destination these days. At the time, there was only one ISP in town (which I assisted at off an on as well). We started off sharing a 56k dial-up line with 8 computers at each cafe. When we first opened, we were charging a peso a minute, which is roughly $0.10/min. We were making a killing.
Well, word got out we were making bank and within 1 year of the first cafe opening, there were 26 of them in town. Then the price wars began and we eventually ended up at around 10 pesos/hr (about $1.00/hr).
The two owners of the first cafe split (because one was an alcoholic and he spent most of the company money on the most expensive booze he could find). That first cafe went out of business within a few months. Largely because of the alcoholic owner, partly because of the mice, scorpions, and other things that made it just a nasty place. But in fact, a lot of the cafes that appeared in that first year went out of business because of the price wars.
Our second cafe ended up surviving the war (and is still around today, visit Atomic Cafe on Calle 8 con Avenida 5), but largely because we made internet a secondary concern and concentrated on the bar business. There are still a couple of places that offer exclusively internet access and I have no idea how they survive. Most of the rest that survived ended up doing other things.
Anyway, that's my internet cafe story. Glad to be out of that business now. The early days were fun, though.
The Best Price Point For Access (Score:3, Interesting)
$0
www.personaltelco.net
How do we do this? Its a little something called Community and it seems to be a far more powerfull force in this town then all the T-mobile run hotspots combined.
Welcome to Portland.
-tomhiggins
www.personaltelco.net