China eases restrictions on number of internet cafes but adds space requirements
Demand continues to grow for them in non-urban areas
China has eased restrictions on the number of internet cafes legally allowed, their location and how many computers they may have but is now requiring they have a business area of at least 20 square metres and an over-two-square-metre space for each computer, Xinhua, the state news agency, reported.
The latest move followed the lifting of the requirement a year ago that web cafes had to be run by chain stores.
Han Xianfeng, an official from the culture ministry’s marketing department, told China National Radio the strict restrictions had led to the proliferation of illegal internet cafes.
He said in some large and medium-size cities, the market for cybercafes has been saturated, but in their outskirts and in small towns and rural areas, the demand was still strong.
In the future, “there will be more internet cafes in rural areas and regions with large migrant populations”, he said.
According to a report by the Internet Access Service Association of China, in 2012, there were 136,000 web cafes in the mainland, with 126 million people, or 22 per cent of all mainland internet users, accessing the web there.
The cafes had a combined revenue of 54 billion yuan (HK$68.3 billion) that year, a decline of 13 per cent from 2011, the report said.
