As of April, 2014, Internet China has been 20 years, and Internet cafes have witnessed the development of the Internet in China. More than 10 years ago, when the popularity of computers was low, every computer in Internet cafes was a cash cow. Recently, a reporter’s visit found that due to the rising operating costs, vicious price competition and other factors, the profit of Internet cafes has almost dropped to the lowest value, and the once fragrant cake has become a hot potato. On the way of difficult transformation, a few owners have explored the high-end Internet cafe model, but it is also difficult to replicate the glory of the Internet cafe industry. The insiders believe that under the current supply and demand conditions, integrating and reducing the number of Internet cafes, taking the route of chain operation, and developing more value-added services as profit growth points may find vitality for Internet cafes.
status
At most, only 30% of Internet cafes in Qingdao are making money, and the gross profit can hardly exceed 20%. Of the remaining 70%, 40% are guaranteed and 30% are at a loss. This is the data disclosed by Mr. Zhang, a person in charge of Shandong Zhonglu Space-time Digital Technology Communication Co., Ltd. in an interview with reporters. Zhonglu Space-Time Company once had nearly 80 Internet cafes in downtown Qingdao, and now there are only more than 20.
Since 2013, the operating profit of Internet cafes in Island City has been close to freezing point. Recently, the reporter visited more than 10 Internet cafes in the city and the suburbs represented by jimo city. The attendance rate in Internet cafes can reach about 70% on weekends and holidays, but few Internet cafes can reach 40% on weekdays. Among more than a dozen bosses, only one boss who opened an Internet cafe near the village in the city on the streets of China and South Korea said that he could rely on young people working nearby to get meager income. Other bosses said that it was difficult to guarantee even making money. Since Qingdao cracked down on Internet cafes to accept minors in 2013, young people who work have become the mainstream customers of Internet cafes.
More than a decade ago, surfing the Internet in Internet cafes was once a "tall" experience. Internet cafes flourished for at least ten years, and then they declined. "Although there are more than 600 million netizens in China, there are 500 million mobile Internet users." A senior webmaster surnamed Li has revealed one reason for the rapid decline of the Internet cafe industry since last year.
In the past two or three years, more and more Internet cafe operators have tried to get rid of this industry and want to change hands in a short time, but few people have "taken over" and the transfer fee has dropped again and again. The owner of an Internet cafe near Wenzhou Road in Shibei District complained like this: "I haven’t recovered the cost after working for 4 years. I want to quickly turn this mess out and go to other industries."
In 2010, Mr. Wang, who lives in jimo city, transferred the Network Culture Business License of his own Internet cafe to his friend Mr. Sun at a price of 90,000 yuan. Four years later, Mr. Sun found that the transfer fee of this set of documents has now dropped to about 30,000 yuan, which is still difficult to sell.
once
Ms. Yang, who started to open an Internet cafe near Guangzhou Road in Shinan District in 1997, admitted that the most glorious period of the Internet cafe industry should be before 2005. Compared with other industries, the Internet cafe industry at that time had obvious advantages. One-time investment has been profitable for many years, and there is little need to invest any more cost after the machine is installed. Ms. Yang recalled: "The attendance rate is almost 100% 24 hours a day. All we have to do is sit and collect money. When you open a medium-sized Internet cafe, you can earn three or four thousand yuan a day, and it is very easy to earn one million yuan a year. "
Huge profits have prompted more and more people to invest in the Internet cafe industry, and large and small Internet cafes have mushroomed in the streets of Qingdao. In 2004, after relying on the original capital accumulated by opening an Internet cafe in Guangzhou Road, Ms. Yang was going to open another branch, but at that time, self-employed individuals could not get the Network Culture Business License, and joining a chain store required a lot of expenses, and it was not completely controlled by herself, so Ms. Yang simply bought a certificate from someone else. "It cost 100,000 yuan, and it was the most expensive time for me to buy a certificate."
The Regulations on the Administration of Internet Service Sites stipulates that business units of Internet Service Sites shall not alter, lease, lend or otherwise transfer the Network Culture Business License; If the internet cafe operator doesn’t want to run the internet cafe, he can only go through the cancellation procedures. In fact, Ms. Yang knows very well that such black market transactions are not protected by law at all, but she still decides to take risks after looking at such a good deal.
The reporter learned that the total number of Internet cafes determined by the Shandong Provincial Department of Culture for Qingdao at that time was 800, and as of August 2003, there were more than 1,000 Internet cafes in Qingdao alone. The cultural department of Qingdao issued a notice, requesting the cultural bureaus of all districts and cities to stop approving new Internet cafes from August 22, 2003. Therefore, the "Network Culture Business License" necessary for opening an Internet cafe has entered a private transaction.
operate
Internet fee of two yuan per hour, which was the price in the 1990s. After more than 10 years, the internet fee of more than 1,500 Internet cafes in the island city is still about two yuan on average. After joining the membership card to participate in the promotion activities of Internet cafes, the internet fee is even lower.
"Zhonglu Time and Space" was the first to develop an Internet cafe chain in Qingdao. Mr. Zhang, a person in charge of the company, said that the cost and price of operating Internet cafes have already doubled. He took a direct store with an area of more than 300 square meters on Minjiang Road as an example. In recent years, the rent of the store has risen from 300,000 yuan to more than 700,000 yuan, and the salary of network management and staff has at least doubled.
After interviewing a number of Internet cafes of different sizes in the urban and suburban areas, the reporter found that an Internet cafe with 100 computers, for example, will take at least three years to recover its cost if it invests about 1 million yuan. If it quits halfway, used computers will not be able to sell at all, and it will lose all its money, which is also the reason why many Internet cafes are barely supporting.
In addition to internet fees, another major source of profit for Internet cafes is the sales of beverages and foods. The retail price of a bottle of 600 ml Pepsi in major supermarkets in the island city is mostly between 2.3 yuan and 2.8 yuan. However, the reporter visited more than a dozen Internet cafes in the island city. Whether it is the urban-rural junction where the rent is cheaper or several business districts in the city where the land is precious, the retail price of the same cola is rarely lower than that in 5 yuan.
compete
At the beginning of 2013, Qingdao Network Culture Association issued a price increase proposal to all member units, proposing to increase the internet fee to 3 yuan per hour. However, this behavior was suspected of colluding with price increases in the eyes of the price department, so it was stopped.
However, this price increase was unsuccessful. In the view of Mr. Zhang, the head of China-Shandong Time and Space, there are other reasons. "Everyone began to discuss how to rise to 3 yuan together, but in a few days, an Internet cafe on Ningxia Road suddenly launched a membership card to recharge 100 yuan to send 50 yuan, which is equal to a penny." Mr. Zhang said.
Low-price competition once led to low-level competition, and Internet cafes even became hiding places for criminals. Under the background that the cultural law enforcement departments strictly enforce the law and strengthen the law enforcement, Internet cafe practitioners who used to earn profits by playing the legal edge ball have repeatedly complained.
Take "all-night business", the most typical behavior of exploiting legal loopholes, as an example. Article 22 of the Regulations on the Administration of Internet Service Sites stipulates that the daily business hours of Internet Service Sites are limited to 8: 00 to 24: 00. Wang Shuhong, director of the Network Management Department of Qingdao Cultural Market Administrative Law Enforcement Bureau, said that since the law enforcement was intensified in 2013, more than 1,600 Internet cafes in the city have rarely been open all night, because the punishment for such illegal business practices is very heavy, and if the circumstances are serious, the Network Culture Business License can be revoked.
In the view of Mr. Wang, the post-1985 boss who runs an Internet cafe on Nanjing Road, this kind of strict management makes sense: "In the past, when we closed the door, we expected some people who stayed up all night to earn more money. Those people still had certain spending power, and I also knew that some of them were afraid to stay in hotels, which was a mixed bag of fish and dragons, and they were also doing scary business. I dare not check it strictly now, but my heart is also practical. " Mr. Li, president of Qingdao Internet Association, said in an interview with reporters a few days ago: "The vicious competition among peers is very serious now. Instead of fighting for decoration, renovation and price, it is better to optimize restructuring. If the number of Internet cafes in Qingdao is reduced by half, leaving seven or eight hundred, I believe the industry ecology will be much better."
transform
How to transform the Internet cafe industry is a topic that Internet cafe owners often discuss. The emergence of high-end Internet cafes in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen seems to give some inspiration to the Internet cafe owners in the island city. At the beginning of 2014, an Internet cafe, known as the most expensive in Qingdao, was born in HongKong Middle Road, Qingdao. The one-hour 10 yuan fee surprised many peers and Internet surfers. On April 23, the reporter visited this Internet cafe and found that the interior decoration and computer hardware configuration of the Internet cafe really belong to the high-end level in the island city, with freshly ground coffee, brand desserts and soothing background music. The staff told the reporter that this is a national chain of Internet cafes, all of which use iMac all-in-one, with more than 100 in total. At the same time, it can also provide professional e-sports mechanical keyboards and mice for Internet surfers.
According to the situation of opening for several months, the average attendance rate of Internet cafes is about 70%. For non-members, the hourly internet fee requires 10 yuan, so the profit is relatively high, but the staff also expressed their concerns. He said: "At first, there may be many people who want to be fresh, but after this period of time, they are worried that the attendance rate will decline, because the attendance rate has obviously not been as good as the new opening stage in recent days."
As a matter of fact, as early as 2008, there were Internet cafes in the island city trying to increase the internet fee through high-end quality. The "E Tribe" changchun road store located at the intersection of Weihai Road and changchun road in Taitung was called the most luxurious large-scale Internet cafe in Qingdao at that time by the vast majority of Internet surfers in the island city. However, when the reporter passed the door of the Internet cafe on April 22, he found that the entire door had been removed. A man who did not want to be named said that the Internet cafe was due to the high initial investment cost. When the reporter asked about the business situation, the man smiled bitterly, indicating that it was hard to say.
People in the industry are not optimistic about this model: "The specific situation of each city is different. Internet cafes in Shanghai can still be full for 30 yuan an hour. People are mainly targeting high-income groups. Few people in Internet cafes play games. They are all used for business office. The newly opened Internet cafes in Qingdao are specifically aimed at gamers. How can this last?"
situation
According to the statistics in 2013, there are more than 1,700 officially registered Internet cafes in Qingdao, ranking third in the country after Chongqing and Chengdu, and this figure became more than 1,500 in the latest statistics in April 2014, which has been reduced by more than 200.
"Qingdao Internet cafes must be chained and managed in a unified way." This is the consensus that members of Qingdao Internet Association have already reached. According to the specific steps formulated in the "Implementation Opinions on Promoting Internet Cafe Chain Integration in Shandong Province" jointly issued by the Shandong Provincial Department of Culture and the Public Security Department, June 2012 to December 2014 belongs to the stage of comprehensive promotion of Internet Cafe integration, and the opinions call for speeding up the progress of "changing from single to even", and the chain rate of Internet cafes in all cities should reach 90% by the end of 2014.
"To say that it is a chain is actually to sign a symbolic contract with a chain company. The company has no binding force on people’s previous single Internet cafes. The legal representative of the single company does not change, the management mode does not change, and even the door is too lazy to change to a unified format. How can this be called a chain?" Mr. Zhang, the head of Sino-Shandong Time and Space, is not optimistic about the current integration.
Efforts to revive Internet cafes have never stopped. Under the situation that the Internet cafe industry has gradually declined in the industry and management departments, Xiao Wang, an entrepreneur born after the 1980s in Nanjing Road, is still going against the wind. In addition to setting down the store at a cheaper price, he said with confidence that the value-added services of Internet cafes are always there besides surfing the Internet. Besides selling drinks and charging cards to earn a little money, the core value-added services of Internet cafes should be advertising, "such as starting advertising.
Text/photo reporter Cao Kaijie
(Source: Peninsula Network-peninsula metropolis daily)