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Is there hope in the Net Cafe Business?

About a year ago, I wrote about the state of the internet cafe business in the Philippines and why it’s a seemingly losing battle. A couple of days ago, I mentioned that I started venturing into the Internet Cafe with a friend. I got emails asking why I thought the net cafe is still a viable business and here’s my take.

internet cafe businessAgain, I’ll refer you to the points I highlighted in my previous entry — location. If you believe that you have the right location then you’ll have a higher probability to succeed or even just getting back your investment in a short time.

Your goal here is to be able to recover enough of the initial capital in order to re-invest in upgrading your workstations in 2 or 3 years. Otherwise, you get left behind with older and slower PCs that you’ll lose customers (esp. gamers) to nearby competitors that offer better ones for the same rates.

The major driving force with my decision to going into the internet cafe business is different though. What I am looking into are parallel businesses that I can put on top of the net cafe business without incurring additional or too much overhead.

That way, all I need is for the revenues of the net cafe to at least cover rent, bills and wages. Whatever profits I am expecting will come from other side businesses.

What are possible side businesses that one can add on top of an internet cafe? Well, some of them are already being offered in most shops:

  • Gaming cards for pay-for-play games (Level-Up, e-Games).
  • Cellphone reloading for Smart, Globe and Sun Cellular.
  • Photocopying, printing, scanning and CD/DVD burning services.
  • Food and drinks.
  • Photo-ID and photo printing.
  • Custom cellphone uploads (ringtones, wallpapers, games, apps).

You can also offer outsourced services:

  • Computer sales and repair services.
  • Encoding/typing services.
  • Digital Photo services (better than webcam quality Friendster photos).
  • Card Design/Printing (calling cards, invites, certificates, custom greeting cards, etc.)
  • Video conversion/authoring.
  • Cellphone and electronics repair services.

If you add revenues from all these sources, they could be a significant amount on the returns. Of course, you only select the ones that your manpower can handle and your location. The rest can be outsourced. The ideas here are more applicable if you’re located in subdivisions or villages. You can look into totally unrelated combinations too — like a laundry shop and a net cafe, a video rental, a used book store, a car wash service or a 24-hour grocery.

The idea is to share the burden on the rent and bills which usually takes up majority of the operational costs.

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

59 Responses

  1. Avatar for Tony Tony says:

    This internet cafe business has saved my finances when I got involved in a personal accident. Thumbs up. Refer to my website for details.

  2. Avatar for mang kanor mang kanor says:

    @Melvin I B. Cruz. ask yourself kung bakit ka nasa computershop. pag nag categorize k ng customer meaning predicted mo n agad yung ginagawa nila. how sure you are. just give them plenty of options. pg sinabi mo bng gamer(dota,lol,cf), offline:ass creed,gtav,nba2k. tpos un non gamer purely surfing, msword, chat, fb, camfrog, livesex.pano kung non gamer mo mag try ng online games or maghanap s pc niang (non gamer setup) ng offline games. edi madidissapoint customer mo. basta lhat ng pc pare pareho. pde yan kung already existing n yung shop mo at may mga pc kng ayaw mo dispose or iupgrade kc bottleneck n. learn from the expert – mr. kanor

  3. Avatar for ryan ryan says:

    today. the bigger the shop the better. as long as the location is feasible.

  4. Avatar for Glenn Vincent Glenn Vincent says:

    This seems to be a viable business venture in 2009, but I wonder if you can give us an update for 2012. Are the things and business practices mentioned still applicable for this year? The bottom line is will we be able to make money? Kindly update the article. I am trying to find a good business venture for my son and the article seems to give us the right stuff if only we can be sure of it this year. Did your Net-Cafe that you mentioned that you put up make any serious income? Thanks and Hope to hear from you soon. God Bless!

  5. Avatar for vertex vertex says:

    i think the most important things for net-cafe business is :

    . the shop name must be not more than 4 characters >> cool & easy to remember ; like core/+plus/Xb!t/town/ … etc.

    . always be defferent , i mean about the atmosphere , furniture , & the lighting of the place ! makes the customers feels they are in defferent world , not just a regular netcafe !!!
    *here is one idea :
    each pc booth have different design than another , the design of the booth telling you a story of fantasy world ~

    . the pc’s should works very excellent full services and no errors and missing application’s makes everything so easy & perfect to handle .

    . make an customers Id card system for charge unit , and each customer collect point’s by hours , reward after reach 50 point a simple gift .

    . i advice the food & drinks service to be very quick clean and in a good shape to handle .

    & always improve & develop ur netcafe shop , care for the customers and always ask them about how you doing in ur business what the like & what they don’t what they miss …

    wish to all success ~

    • Avatar for Melvin I B. Cruz Melvin I B. Cruz says:

      i do have a lot of questions actually regarding with this net cafe business. i’m a 3rd year BSBA maj. in Business economics and we have a Feasibility Study subject this same and my question is, is it okay to separate the non-gamer and gamer area ?? pls. e-mail me melvin23b****@****.***

    • Avatar for Melvin I B. Cruz Melvin I B. Cruz says:

      i do have a lot of questions actually regarding with this net cafe business. i’m a 3rd year BSBA maj. in Business economics student and we have a Feasibility Study subject this sem and my question is, is it okay to separate the non-gamer and gamer area ?? pls. e-mail me melvin23b****@****.***

  6. Avatar for Hazel Hazel says:

    Today,we will explore further in a world where business is just a click of a button. Moving with IT Solutions Partner can be huge push towards a successful business,and for small business owners operating an online business can be the easiest and most inexpensive to expand your market.Using Internet Marketing as tool it is the great way to spread services,gather potential customers and expand your business.Be part of the extreme world of Social Media Internet. For more info you may email us at h****@****.*** call us at 567.3813 and look for Hazel

  7. Avatar for mojtaba mojtaba says:

    am no spek englesh

  8. Avatar for Joe Palala Joe Palala says:

    Microsoft has started an icafe program wherein all the software will be cheaper if licensed for a net cafe http://www.microsoft.com/philippines/icafe/

    Thanks/Best Regards

  9. Avatar for Joel Joel says:

    Hello po advice naman po. We are planning mag put a ng 6-8 PC sa house namin. And me na rin ang mag manage overall ang problem is kapos ng budget if bibili kami ng license software. Marami bang nahuhuli sa mga internet shop kahit sa kalooblooban pa ng barangay? Thanks

  10. Avatar for chocoluvr chocoluvr says:

    Anybody here with an existing internet cafe in the U-belt area with at least 20 stations and who is looking for more capital for upgrade or expansion? May extra funds ako at naghahanap ako ng investment for extra income. Mukhang OK lahat ng sinasabi dito – kahit anong business naman will succeed or fail depending on a lot of factors. Interested pa din ako sa internet cafe kaya lang may full-time job ako so hanap ko partner na nag-ma-manage na talaga ng internet cafe nya at gustong ituloy yun pero syempre, kelangan willing na magka-partner na bago.

    If interested, please email me at l8****@****.***.

  11. Avatar for blessedsinner blessedsinner says:

    hay…help pow
    upgrade sana ko pcs…san ba may mga mura na videocard at memory card na pwede swap…thnak you…. all your messages about internet shops sobrang true

  12. Avatar for blessedsinner blessedsinner says:

    hay…i own an internet shop for 3 years na…upgrade sana ko pcs…san ba may mga mura na videocard at memory card na pwede swap…thnak you…. all your messages about internet shops sobrang true

  13. Avatar for hazel honra hazel honra says:

    hi guys, just want to offer those who already have internet cafe to avail our FREE installation of QUICK ADS- online advertisment, this will help you earn EXTRA INCOME for your internet cafe’s, if you have any question, feel free to contact me at 0927-2300509 or 0933-4306414.

    thank you…

  14. Avatar for IC DeaDPiPoL IC DeaDPiPoL says:

    IMO better go with the restaurant/cafe with internet kiosks as long as you can get a good location.

    If you decide to opt for gaming pc setup you will need Windows licenses and game license (Warcraft III/DOTA) which will add cost.
    Pros:
    -tend to generate higher amount of customer (regular customer, gamer, casual surfer)
    Cons:
    -higher cost due to…
    ==software licenses
    ==requires higher spec’d pc parts for gaming
    ==higher electrical cost. Usually consumes 400~650 watts per kiosk

    Opting for a pure websurfing only kiosk you can opt to use GNU/Linux based distribution since all you will need is a web browser(unfortunately Yahoo Messenger is not available under linux).
    pros:
    -cheaper to implement
    ==using GNU/Linux as an OS with Chrome or Firefox for browsing
    ==lower power consumption (especially when using Intel Atom based CPU). Usually consumes around 65~125watts for a single kiosk
    ==lower cost to build the pc since you can opt for a motherboard with integrated parts.

    cons:
    -limited patrons (casual surfers and non-gaming regulars only)

  15. Avatar for sheryl sheryl says:

    good day,filipina ako at nakapangasawa ako ng greek,and2 ako sa cyprus ngayon,dme nagwowork dahil my 3 yrs old baby ako..plan ko umuwi to put up this internet cafe business…sarili kong pwesto at starting ng 6 units ng pc…location ko ay residential area..wala pa kme internet shop kz malapit dun kaya mejo maganda para dna pumunta sa downtown ang mga costumer..maganda ba tlga tumayo ng business na ito,plan ko din is internet cafe and restaurant…merienda foods lang or mga coffee drinks..pls advice me more…thanks..

  16. Avatar for Leo Leo says:

    Yuo don’t have to buy Microsoft Windows license to have an internet cafe, use “Ubuntu” it’s better OS and its free.

  17. Avatar for MalikAburama MalikAburama says:

    internet cafe industry today is weak. Mababa na masyado ang rate 10/12 per hour/ ung iba pa nga 8 pesos pa. And if u are located sa downtown , masmalaki renta mo. hindi kakayanin ng rate mo. Sa renting of property pa lng patay ka na. then plus the utilities especially electricty. and also ung DSL. Our’s we pay 4k a month. average electric bill namin is 11k. monthly rentals is 19k.

    The worst of all?. Expensive MS software. before you put up a business one of your first priorty must be ur software licenses. Another problem- those in the BIR office, their agents are usually boastful.

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