TechLahore

Pakistan's internet cafes were immortalized in Bina Shah's cyber fiction. Are they on their way out?

Business Recorder reports that business at internet cafes is petering out. And it makes sense too… with the proliferation of EDGE enabled phones, mobile and wired broadband, WiMAX, and most of all, inexpensive computers, who needs to go to a net cafe now? Yeah, I know the smart aleck response is, “Those who don’t want to surf p04n at home”. But come on! TechLahore is a PG website. We can’t have that sort of nonsense here.

Internet cafes are certainly on the decline, if not completely dead. But they’ve had their place in the evolution of IT in Pakistan. They played a great role in providing access to millions of people when computers were more expensive and not as prevelant as they are today. Heck, an internet cafe even rescued me once in Islamabad! Many years ago, we were driving back from the PC in Bhurban with a foreign customer, heading back to Lahore. My Laptop croaked along the way and we really needed to shoot of a quick email. If it wasn’t for a cafe buried in the basement of one of the plazas at Jinnah Super, I would have been done for!

Internet cafes became such a part of our culture over the years that one of the best pieces of cyber fiction to emerge from Pakistan, The 786 Cyber Cafe, authored by Bina Shah, revolved around the clientele and proprieters of a cyber cafe.

Death for Cybercafes is not an inalterable prophecy by any means. I think these businesses can rescue themselves if they focus more on value added services and less on the plain vanilla internet access. For example, there’s still room for a well equipped cyber cafe with a great multi player gaming setup. Since it’s a logistical pain in the rear to arrange a LAN party, showing up to one of these cafes would be so much more convenient. Or how about a cafe equipped with projectors and sound proof rooms for remote video conferencing? I could see many of the tens of thousands of oDeskers and eLancers spread throughout Pakistan wanting to use these facilities to communicate with their clients in other countries. And finally, how about making the net cafe more of a cafe and less of a cube farm? If the internet cafe evolves into a regular cafe with great connectivity, that could be another viable model… After all, WiFi tastes so much sweeter with a slice of glazed lemon pound cake and a blended coffee frap!

Here’s more from the Biz:

Internet cafes facing crunch, losing popularity

ISLAMABAD (December 25, 2009): The modern and innovative advancement in technology usage in cell phones and laptops has badly affected Internet cafe business and majority of them are either closing down or switching over to other businesses. Few years back people with no access to internet found these cafes handy for browsing internet, to send or receive e-mails or images. But today many internet cafe owners have replaced their business with mobile phone shops.

Share this: