do any you owna internetcafe

[Guest]

my lady boy friend whant to open up 1 not look much in to it tho good or bad ide litle imput on this will help me a lot on me giveign the funds or not take care guys

[Guest]

Well, I think you can do the Math. Here's my quick take on it...

1 baht/minute = 60 baht hour * 10 stations at 50% occupancy = 300 baht/hr * 12 hrs = maximum 3600 / day = $3,800 USD / yr
1 PC = 20,000 baht * 10 PC = 200,000 baht (usable for 3 yrs) = 66,666 baht / year = $1700 USD / year.
2 employees, 6000 baht / month = 12,000 baht = 144,000 baht / year = $4200 USD / year
Now, the totally unpredictable part, but let's say, building rent and utilities are 50,000 / month or $17,600 USD / year.

So you lose $15,500 per year with this scenario, and of course, you can twist the numbers many ways.

I really don't know this business at all, but my intuition, and this analysis, show the following:

a. The location rental must be extremely cheap
b. The best way to make money is from other things, like selling food, drinks, etc, which have higher margin

At a macroscopic scale, we can say they must make money because there are a lot of them, so something must work here, but certainly this is not the place to make your next million! My 2 cents.

[rxpharm]

Ziggy has done a reasonable estimate based on the typical access rates.

Most internet cafes will either sell drinks and small snacks (add to profit), and/or extra services, such as printing of e-mails or documents, scanning, webcam chat service, discount internet phone calls, and of the course the ever popular translation service for the smitten sponsor replies. I don't think it is a business that you can make a lot of money at, but with proper management, promotion and supervision, it might make some money.

As always, it is very easy to lose money as well, so think carefully before going ahead with sponsoring any business for your girlfriend.

[jadeite]

Based on what I have seen being a customer of internet cafe's, I couldn't agree more with those comments. Make the internet cheap to almost free as a means to get customers in and fill all the chairs, not to make money. Once you have them inside, make profits from selling them stuff. One of my favorite internet cafe's is like a starbucks inside. Even though it was a great location with nice new computers & lcd's, they charge almost nothing for the internet service, but at the same time do tremendous business selling expensive exotic drinks and the espresso machine and bean grinder is always busy. Another thing would be to have nice AC to keep people comfortable and in longer. The money is in the upsells, not the internet. It looks like the only way to make money out of it.

[BAM]

Lots of places now run free Wifi hotspots just to attract customers into their establishments. Even the McDonald's was doing this last time I was in town.

[stogie bear]

(tslover @ Aug. 19 2007,09:14) my lady boy friend whant to open up 1  not look much in to it tho good or bad ide litle imput on this will help me a lot on me giveign the funds or not take care guys

She could teach English... and you can be her first customer!

[hardpaolo]

Crazy idea, don't do it.

[Guest]

and/or extra services, such as printing of e-mails or documents, scanning, webcam chat service, discount internet phone calls, and of the course the ever popular translation service for the smitten sponsor replies

And here was me having dirty thoughts when I saw extra services, then the disappointment came when I saw what they actually were...

[batman4ever]

(stogie bear @ Aug. 20 2007,13:26)

(tslover @ Aug. 19 2007,09:14) my lady boy friend whant to open up 1  not look much in to it tho good or bad ide litle imput on this will help me a lot on me giveign the funds or not take care guys

 She could teach English... and you can be her first customer!  

ooouch....
was that an reminder to us, who is not, native speakers of english....?

[TTChang]

(rxpharm @ Aug. 19 2007,17:15) :  ...and of the course the ever popular translation service for the smitten sponsor replies. ......

.....  nicely worded rx!!

To get back to question, I understand from my bank that 'keylogging' is an 'unwanted extra' for customers in some internet cafes In Thailand.

Hacking into bank accounts might help cashflow!!