MoC: China's Internet Café Users Reach 135 Mln in 2009

Sina Tech, 6/08/10

China's Ministry of Culture (MoC) today released its 2009 Annual Report on China's Internet Café Market, showing that as of the end of 2009, China was home to 135 mln internet café users nationwide, up 8.43 mln or 6.7% compared to 2008.

China's internet cafés receive the bulk of their revenues from hourly usage fees, which have steadily dropped since 1996. Average prices have fallen from an initial RMB 20 per hour to approximately RMB 2 per hour. Total industry value in 2009 was RMB 88.6 bln.

There were 138,000 legally operating internet cafés nationwide in 2009, up by approximately 8,000 compared to 2008. The market is divided into three tiers based on the number of computers in each café: large-scale cafés (300 computers or more), mid-sized cafés (100-299 computers) and small-scale cafés (fewer than 100). In 2009, large cafés accounted for 7% of the national total, while 46% were mid-sized and 47% were small-scale. There were more than 150 internet café franchise companies in 2009 with over 4,500 locations combined.

The number of computer terminals in the nation's internet cafés increased by approximately 1.28 mln to a total of 13.2 mln in 2009, with the average price per computer of RMB 3,500, contributing nearly RMB 4.5 bln to the industry value of the PC manufacturing sector.

China's internet cafés spent approximately RMB 2 bln on internet access fees in 2009.

In 2009, China's Ministry of Culture carried out campaigns to crack down on underage internet café usage, underground cafés and the dissemination of illegal information in cafés. Ministry of Culture employees at all levels as well as cultural market law enforcement authorities ordered 168,705 cafés to reform their practices, and shut down 8,102.

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