China: 130 thousand Internet cafes shut down in six years

According to the “2010 China Internet Cafe Market Report” released by the Ministry of Culture on March 17 2011, more than 130 thousand unlicensed Internet cafes had been shut down in the past six years.

Apart from cracking down illegal cafes, the government has also introduced new regulations and imposed harsh penalty to wipe small scale Internet cafes out of business so as to create space for large Internet cafe chains.

As a result of the brutal market adjustment, the market size of Internet Cafe shrunk significantly by 12.96% from RMB88.6 billion in 2009 to RMB 77.12 billion in 2010, a decrease of more than RMB10 billion in term of cash value.

The total number of Internet cafe in 2010 is 144 thousands with 14.28 million computer terminals. 30% of the Internet cafe is run by franchise chains. (via people.com [zh]) The promotion of franchise is to facilitate the implementation of real name registration in Internet cafes: customers are requested to register their ID information before going online. In addition, minors are forbidden to enter Internet cafes.

In 2011, the ministry vows to extend the crackdown of illegal Internet cafes from urban to rural areas.

More from RFA.

5 comments

  • China: 130 thousand Internet cafes shut down in six years – Global Voices Advocacy…

    According to the “2010 China Internet Cafe Market Report” released by the Ministry of Culture on March 17 2011, more than 130 thousand unlicensed Internet cafes had been shut down in the past six years. Apart from cracking down illegal cafes, the gover…

  • […] China has shut down 130,000 Internet cafes. In the last six years, China has driven 130,000 Internet cafes out of business. Many in China rely on these cafes for their Internet access. The goal seems to be to keep Internet users off-balance but also to drive small shops out of business to be replaced by large chains. That, in turn, is no doubt a convergence of large business owners engaging in Party official kickbacks and the fact that one big chain with a lot to lose may be much more assiduous about implementing government censorship rules. […]

  • […] China has shut down 130,000 Internet cafes. In the last six years, China has driven 130,000 Internet cafes out of business. Many in China rely on these cafes for their Internet access. The goal seems to be to keep Internet users off-balance but also to drive small shops out of business to be replaced by large chains. That, in turn, is no doubt a convergence of large business owners engaging in Party official kickbacks and the fact that one big chain with a lot to lose may be much more assiduous about implementing government censorship rules. […]

  • […] China: 130 thousand Internet cafes shut down in six years – Global … […]

  • […] on this topic. [Translate] TweetEcrit par Oiwan Lam · Traduit par Cindy Couderc · Voir le billet d'origine [en]Selon le “Rapport sur le marché des cybercafés 2010″ publié par le Ministère chinois […]

Join the conversation

Authors, please log in »

Guidelines

  • All comments are reviewed by a moderator. Do not submit your comment more than once or it may be identified as spam.
  • Please treat others with respect. Comments containing hate speech, obscenity, and personal attacks will not be approved.