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An Internet café, also known as a cybercafé, is a Coffeehouse (or a convenience store or a fully dedicated Internet access business) that provides the use of computers with high bandwidth Internet access on the payment of a fee. Usage is generally charged by the minute or part of hour. An Internet café will generally also offer refreshments or other services such as phone repair. Internet cafés are often hosted within a shop or other establishment. They are located worldwide, and many people use them when traveling to access webmail and instant messaging services to keep in touch with family and friends. Apart from travelers, in many developing countries Internet cafés are the primary form of Internet access for citizens as a shared-access model is more affordable than personal ownership of equipment and/or software. Internet cafés are a natural evolution of the traditional café. As Internet access rose many pubs, bars, and cafés added terminals and eventually , eroding the distinction between the Internet café and normal cafés. In recent years, traditional internet cafés have experienced a significant decline in developed countries due to the widespread availability of personal internet access devices. Conversely, in regions like Southeast Asia, internet cafés have evolved into esports cafés, serving as community hubs for gamers and training grounds for professional players.
In March 1988, the 'PC bang' was opened near Hongik University in Seoul, South Korea by Ahn Sang-soo (Professor of Hongik University) and Gum Nu-ri (Professor of Kookmin University). Two 16bit computers connected to Online service networks through telephone lines. Offline meetings were held in the café, which served as a place that connected online and offline activities.
In July 1991, the sf net was opened in San Francisco, United States by Wayne Gregori. Gregori installed coin-operated computer terminals in coffeehouses throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. The terminals dialed into a 32 line Bulletin Board System that offered an array of electronic services including FIDOnet mail and, in 1992, Internet mail.
In June 1994, The Binary Café, Canada's first Internet café, opened in Toronto, Ontario, according to Security and Software for Cybercafés.
Inspired partly by the ICA event and associated with an Internet provider startup, EasyNet, in the same building, a commercial Internet café called Cyberia opened on September 1, 1994, in London, England. ArtsEmerson credits it as London's first cybercafé, although it also claims it opened before The Binary Café.
The first public, commercial United States Internet café was conceived and opened by Jeff Anderson and Alan Weinkrantz in August 1994, at Infomart in Dallas, Texas, and was called The High Tech Cafe.
A bar called CompuCafé was established in Helsinki, Finland in September 1993 and relocated to larger premises in October 1994 featuring both Internet access and a robotic beer seller.
In January 1995, the CB1 Café in Cambridge installed an Internet connection. It was the longest running Internet Café in the UK, ultimately closing down in 2015.
The Scottish Bar in French-speaking Switzerland was started on June 27, 1995 by Pierre Hemmer.
In June 1995, three Internet cafés opened in the East Village neighborhood of New York City: Internet Cafe, opened by Arthur Perley, the @Cafe, and the Heroic Sandwich. In 1996, the Internet café Surf City opened in downtown Anchorage, Alaska.
Since early 2010s, the rising popularity of , due to improved hardware and faster internet connectivity (LTE and 5G NR), started having a major economic impact on internet cafés. It has been estimated that the number of internet cafés in South Korea dropped 17% from 19,000 in 2010 to 15,800 in 2012, and internet cafés in developing countries were struggling to grow.
In China, a 2011 government report stated that 130,000 internet cafés had closed down over the previous six years, due to tightening regulations, which brought the number down to 144,000. One industry consultant estimated the number had reached 136,000 in 2012.
In some locations, however, internet cafés continued to be used for reasons ranging from evading gambling regulations to building communities of language learners. As of 2021, internet cafés are still operating in South Korea for online gaming.
In September 2024 the National Communication Museum in Melbourne opened, featuring a Cyber Cafe. It was developed with Rita Arrigo, who opened Australia's first internet cafè in 1995.
Many hotels, resorts, and cruise ships offer Internet access for the convenience of their guests; this can take various forms, such as in-room wireless access, or a web browser that uses the in-room television set for its display (usually in this case the hotel provides a wireless keyboard on the assumption that the guest will use it from the bed), or computer(s) that guests can use, either in the lobby or in a business center. As with telephone service, in the US most mid-price hotels offer Internet access from a computer in the lobby to registered guests without charging an additional fee, while fancier hotels are more likely to charge for the use of a computer in their "business center."
For those traveling by road in North America, many have Internet kiosks, for which a typical charge is around 20 cents per minute.
Internet cafés come in a wide range of styles, reflecting their location, main clientele, and sometimes, the social agenda of the proprietors. In the early days they were important in projecting the image of the Internet as a 'cool' phenomenon.
A variation on the Internet café business model is the LAN gaming center, used for multiplayer gaming. These cafés have several computer stations connected to a LAN. The connected computers are custom-assembled for gameplay, supporting popular multiplayer video game. This is reducing the need for and , many of which are being closed down or merged into Internet cafés. The use of Internet cafés for multiplayer gaming is particularly popular in certain areas of Asia like India, the Mainland China of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea and the Philippines. In some countries, since practically all LAN gaming centers also offer Internet access, the terms net café and LAN gaming center have become interchangeable. Again, this shared-access model is more affordable than personal ownership of equipment and/or software, especially since games often require high end and expensive PCs.
Gaming is extremely popular at internet cafés in Asia, which has helped create strong demand and a sustainable business model for most cafés. However, with this growing popularity also comes more responsibility. To compete for market share, internet cafés have started charging less and have turned to alternate ways to maximize revenue. This includes selling food, drinks, game cards, and phone cards to patrons.
In 2005 Italy began requiring entities such as Internet cafés to collect photocopies of the passports of Internet, phone, or fax-using customers as a result of anti-terrorism legislation passed in July of that year.
By 2010, a variation of the Internet café known as a "sweepstakes parlor" had become widespread in certain regions of the United States. These facilities offered entries in a contest to customers who purchase Internet usage. Sweepstakes parlors faced scrutiny by local governments, who argued that sweepstakes parlors are a form of illegal gambling. A large number of these locations faced raids by officials, while a number of states enacted laws to ban them.
There are European countries where the total number of publicly accessible terminals is also decreasing. An example of such a country is Germany. The cause of this development is a combination of complicated regulation, relatively high Internet penetration rates, the widespread use of notebooks, tablets, and smartphones and the relatively high number of wireless internet hotspots. Many pubs, bars and cafés in Germany offer wireless Internet, but no terminals since the Internet café regulations do not apply if no terminal is offered. Additionally, the use of Internet cafés for multiplayer gaming is very difficult in Germany since the Internet café regulations and a second type of regulations which was originally established for video arcade centres applies to this kind of Internet cafés. It is, for example, forbidden for people under the age of 18 to enter such an Internet café, although particularly people under 18 are an important group of customers for this type of Internet café.
In 2008, there were 180,000 cyber cafes in India but by 2017, it declined to 50,000, one of primary reasons for decline was rules of IT Act, which caused licensing issues and other restrictions.
Currently, no special license is required to operate an Internet café or warnet in Indonesia, except for the ordinary business license applicable to cafes or small shops. Because of hype and poor business planning, many net cafes have closed down. Although the number of Internet cafes are growing, associations such as APWKomitel urge new Internet café owners to do a feasibility study before planning to open an Internet café, and provide a business model called multipurpose community Internet center or "MCI Center" to make the business more sustainable and competitive. Hourly usage rate varies between Rp 2500–15000 ($0,27 – 1,60)
The Internet café is called a "網咖" ( Wǎng kā) in traditional Chinese. The first character literally means "net" and the second character is the first syllable of "café."The rate is consistent at about NT$10~20 in the most part, but prominent districts, such as the Eastern District of Taipei, can charge users up to NT$35 per hour. With the growth of smartphone ownership and free Wi-Fi networks in all major public attractions, the Internet cafés now primarily cater to gamers, and some even provide food and drinks.
Internet cafés were prevalent in the 1990s but began to decline in popularity due to the expansion of home-based email and broadband internet access points, as well as the later deployment of Wi-Fi and . As of 2022, LAN gaming centers can be found in metropolitan areas in the United States. Gaming centers are not as popular in the U.S. compared to East Asia. Like those in Asia, gaming centers typically offer Internet access, food, and drinks.
In Marvel Studios Captain Marvel, the main character enters an internet café where she looks up clues to her past.
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