Internet cafes key to city's ambition

Upgrading Internet cafes with features supporting eSports and artificial intelligence will help Shanghai become a global eSports hub, government officials and industry executives said at an industry conference on Wednesday. 

More than 80 percent of the world's Internet cafes are in China, creating 70.6 billion yuan (US$10 billion) revenue in 2018 and boosting related industries in eSports, e-commerce and IT infrastructure, industry officials told the Global Internet Cafe Innovation Summit 2019 in Shanghai.

With two decades of development, Internet cafes had diversified functions beyond Internet connections only. They have become a hub for entertainment, eSports and culture and tourism, said Huang Feng, founder of Wanyoo, the country’s biggest chain Internet cafe operator. 

Wanyoo plans to have have 1,000 outlets by the end of the year compared with its current 800 and 2,000 in 2020.

Internet cafes are a key part of Shanghai's aim to become a global eSports hub within three to five years, said Ding Xiaoling, head of the online publishing division of the Shanghai Publicity Department.

They have become “easy and affordable” spaces for people to access the latest technologies to create virtual worlds, Jams Zhang, general manager of Nvidia China, told the conference.

Technologies including artificial intelligence and graphic computing represent a revolution in the Chinese information technology industry, according to Nvidia, the world’s biggest graphic computing firm.

Asia and China will become new growth engines for global Internet cafe development, with investment, evolving technology and improved management experiences like Starbucks and McDonald's, said Xu Kun, an analyst with researcher Frost & Sullivan.