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Cafes headed towards Cyberia?

admin — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 22:04:52 -0800

PALLAVI PASRICHA
[ 2 Nov, 2006 2127hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

The favourite hangout joints of GenX a few years ago, cyber cafes have fallen from grace now. Is this the end of the cyber cafe culture?

A few years ago, they used to be choc-a-bloc with youngsters who wanted to chat, surf and, if possible, live in the cyber cafes. Today, at the mere mention of the name, any youngster worth his laptop grimaces and says, "How tacky!" Cyber cafes have indeed fallen on bad days and figures are a proof of that. So, while the number of internet users have seen a steady increase from 33 million in March this year to 37 million in September, only 39 per cent of them are using cyber cafes.

So, what made the then hangout joints suddenly fall from grace? "The easy availability of computers and too much of negative publicity that came to surround cyber cafes," answers Ankit Sharma, a cyber café owner.

Most of the cyber cafes say that walk-ins are down by at least 50 per cent. While plush colonies have seen most of the cyber cafes closing down, the middle-class colonies have seen rates coming down from Rs 75 (for an hour of surfing) a few years ago, to a measly Rs 10 now.

Explains Shekhar Sharma, a cyber café owner in Ber Sarai, "My business has gone down by 50 per cent. I opened the cafe seven years ago. At that time, I used to get 150 to 200 customers daily, but now only 50 or 60 customers come daily." Cyber cafes around hostel areas and PGs are marginally doing better because students staying there don't own computers.

And it is not just the stand-alone cyber cafes that are suffering; even big players like Reliance and Sify iway are facing recession. Sify has over 3,300 cafes in the country while Reliance web world has roughly 2,300. Himanshu Sharma, the operations manager of a Reliance outlet says, "We opened the cyber cafe three years back and since then we have lost 15 to 20 per cent of our customers. We basically target students and working people who have to use the internet. We get about 70 to 80 customers daily and 50 per cent of these people come for internet surfing while 25 per cent come for online games." In fact, online gaming is the new attraction through which cyber cafes are trying to make money.

While this is the case in the metropolitan cities, in smaller towns the business is flourishing. Says Ashish Saboo, president, Association of Public ICT Access Provider -- an association of cyber cafes, "In smaller towns, the cyber cafes are doing much better. In these towns, people are slowly becoming aware of the internet and business is flourishing."

He says that local cafe owners are also running scared because they become a scapegoat if anybody uses their premises to send a threatening mail. While the cafe is raided and consecutively shuts down, the real culprit usually gets away by paying a small fine. The recent threats to the president, prime minister and other prank mails have been sent from cyber cafes.

But to keep a check on this kind of thing, hasn't the police made it mandatory that nobody can access a computer without showing his identity proof? "With the business so low already, who wants to drive away the users by asking for identity proof?" questions a cafe owner.

Logged out: Cyber cafes aren't too hot

web-admin — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0800

RITWIK DONDE

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2006 12:00:32 AM]

MUMBAI: When cyber cafés began mushrooming across Indian cities they were considered a window to the world, a source of knowledge and information. Parents and teachers were a happy lot, expecting the youth to make full use of the new technology.

But, having coming under constant security scanner and being touted as shady joints promoting vices, the industry seems to be in the doldrums, with a majority of small players exiting the business.

There are about 200,000 cyber cafés in the country with more than 80% owned by individuals. Say café owners in the city, “It is getting difficult to conduct business with impending cyber café regulations and escalating operating costs. An average private cyber café gets about 50-60 footfalls in a day while the likes of Reliance Web World have 125 footfalls per day per store.”

Says Dilip Chaitalia, a café owner in South Mumbai, “Our footfalls have gone down by nearly 50%, with overall business decreasing by as much as 25%.” Also the cost of technology is rising with the advent of faster printers, webcams and regular software upgrades, he adds.

Café owners say business has been hit mainly by the impending regulations to police the cafes. “Our net earnings are even lower than a salaried job for the same skill set,” says Neelkanth Shanbaug, owner, Grafiti Cyber Café in Mumbai.

Where we used to earn Rs 100 an hour a few years ago, the rate has gone down to Rs 10-15 an hour along with the usage time. And now with regulations stating there would be a need to maintain an electronic log book of customers and monitor activity in the café, our costs would increase even more driving down margins, he adds.

Asserts Sarup Chowdhary, Director & CEO, Reliance World, “The compliance with the new rules and regulations would ensure a secure access but one that comes at a cost.” To put into effect rules like customer identification and constant monitoring of the premises, would mean an addition to the operating expenditure for all the players.

While the bigger cafes would be better off with this back-end addition it would be damaging to the smaller individual players, he adds. Reliance World which has as many as 25 outlets in the city offering internet access has not seen any physical growth in this number since its inception. An increasing number of smaller players are putting their hands up and saying they cannot afford to pump in the excess capital needed for the business.

Experts say that the biggies like Reliance can afford to play the volume games they can house as many 5,000 PCs in their cafes, the small guys can do with only 5-6 PCs. The downtrend in the industry may also be a reason why Reliance World now offers value-added services like video conferencing, video resumes and video mails to attract more users.

The fall in the use of cyber cafes is reflected in a recent survey by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International has revealed cyber cafe users have declined from 52% in ’03 to 39% in ’06. Increased home PC usage and higher broadband penetration is also affecting cyber cafe footfalls. However, not all industry players believe cybercafes are becoming less attractive.

According to a latest survey conducted by AC Nielsen, as many as 34% users now surf the internet from cybercafes, 30% from home, while internet users from offices have fallen to around 20%. Explaining the fall, Dr Subho Ray, President, IAMAI says that the rise in Web 2.0 applications like blogging and the growing e-commerce business have also contributed to an increasing number of users preferring the privacy of their homes over public access points.

Says Ashish Saboo, president, Association of Public ICT Tools Access Provider, less dependence on shared access and stricter regulations are making the case worse for the small entrepreneur in this industry. “The opportunities are huge and globally the e-commerce business is growing but the odds are stacked against us,” he adds.

©Bennett, Coleman and Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

Can’t let states spoil the surf, feels Nasscom

web-admin — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0700

The Economic Times, TIMES NEWS NETWORK

K YATISH RAJAWAT AND RITWIK DONDE

MUMBAI: The Mumbai police’s decision to regulate internet cafes as public amusement places through a gazette notification has boiled over into a national issue. Nasscom, along with other national bodies, is trying to get the IT Act amended to regulate the cafes. The objective is to prevent state government and state police from coming up with their own norms to regulate the cafes.

The move to put in place a centralised legislation gained momentum after ET first reported (in issue dated September 22, ’06) the Mumbai Police’s initiative to regulate the cyber cafes in the city.

Sunil Mehta from Nasscom told ET, “There has to be a national debate on the issue of policing the cyber cafes and other access points for the World Wide Web.” There is definitely a need to have a central law to monitor cyber cafes in the country instead of the piecemeal regulation that exists in the different states presently, he said. It is very important to realise that the internet has become a vital issue for national security.

The Indian IT Act is modelled on the EU legislation on e-commerce. IT Act section 79 has been revised to bring-out explicitly the extent of liability of intermediaries like ISPs and internet cafes in certain cases. The IT Act provides the power to make rules for “intermediary” including “cyber cafes” under section 87. Though, no specific rules have been framed. The lack of any legislation has given the state government the freedom to pursue their own rules.

“Currently, the state governments are not mature enough to frame IT laws and also there is no deliberation with the players in the business before framing such laws,” says Ashish Saboo, president, Association of Public ICT Tools Access Provider. Cyber cafe regulations in Bangalore and Chennai propose maintaining internet caches and cookies for a year. The UP government is even proposing a ban on online chatting in cyber cafes. All these legislations are clearly an evidence that there needs to be consistency in framing the laws.

Says Subho Roy, president, Internet and Mobile Association of India, “There is a lot of ambiguity in the laws governing cyber cafes at the moment. Different states have varied rules on cyber cafes, thus the need to have a central legislation.” The laws should also be simple and same for all the players in the business, otherwise small local players would be forced to wind up their business , he added.

Industry watchers also say that over-rigorous implementation and variance in laws among states would lead to the small internet cafe owners being forced to sell their business to bigger players like Reliance WebWorld, Sify iWay and others.
According to a recent gazette notification, the Mumbai police wanted to license all internet cafes in the city, classifying them under the public amusement category. Each internet cafe owner will have to shell out a licensing fee of Rs 500 per computer for registration.

The state government had published a notification to seek public feedback on the proposed rules, which give the police the discretion to reject a licence. After the ET report on the issue and a deluge of feedback to the state police department, the police decided to reduce the fees per computer to Rs 75.

According to the draft rules, a no objection submission from the landlord/society where the cyber cafes conduct their business, along with NOCs from the civic body’s health and other departments, will also be needed. The rules do not, however, cover STD/ISD booths which also have computing terminals for VOIP calls and email communications.

The rules seek to identify internet cafes on the basis of whether online gaming is being carried out there. The city police has wanted to regulate internet cafes for the past three years but the urgency appears to have increased after the investigations in the 7/11 blasts.

Highlights Higher licence fees would mean small players selling off to corporate players like Reliance WebWorld and Sify iWay, say industry watchers.

Cyber cafe regulations in Bangalore and Chennai propose for maintaining internet caches and cookies for a year
The Uttar Pradesh state government is even proposing a ban on online chatting in cyber cafes .Mumbai Police wants each internet cafe owner will have to shell out a licensing fee of Rs 500 per computer for registration.Rules do not cover STD/ISD booths which also have computing terminals for VOIP calls

Mumbai cops to invade cyberspace

web-admin — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 07:16:46 -0700

K YATISH RAJAWAT AND RITWIK DONDE in Ecomomic Times report

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2006 03:24:28 AM]

MUMBAI: This time round, they don’t want to be left limping in the chase. The 7/11 blasts have spooked the Mumbai police into tightening the noose around cyber crime. With terrorists using internet-based communication to manage their sleeper cells and plan operations, the Mumbai police wants to monitor the city’s cyber cafes.

The police wants to licence all internet cafes in the city, classifying them under the public amusement category. Each internet cafe owner will have to shell out a licensing fee of Rs 500 per computer for registration.

The state government has published a notification to seek public feedback on the proposed rules, which give the police the discretion to reject a licence. According to the draft rules, a “no objection submission” from the landlord/society where the cyber cafes conduct their business, along with NOCs from the civic body’s health and other departments, will also be needed.

The rules do not, however, cover STD/ISD booths which also have computing terminals for VOIP calls and email communications. The rules seek to identify internet cafes on the basis of whether online gaming is being carried out there.

The city police has wanted to regulate internet cafés for the past three years but the urgency appears to have increased after the investigations in the 7/11 blasts. A top Mumbai police official told ET that anti-nationals are increasingly becoming tech-savvy and hence, the need to police such places. The police had also planned to impose a 11 pm deadline on cyber cafes, he added.

“The move is to get these commercial outlets to be more responsible... The gazette has sought public opinion and if people feel there is a need to address certain points, they’re welcome,” he said.

Intelligence agencies in the US and the UK track Internet Protocol (IP)-based communications like emails and VOIP calls using technology tools. Unlike voice calls which can be tapped easily, IP communication is difficult to tap as the end-user device changes. Users can communicate from different computers, change email IDs, or communicate even through postings on blogs or websites.

Cyber cafes, though, are just one access point for terrorists. GPRS-enabled mobile phones, and access to the net through other personal computing devices are equally common.

Cyber cafe owners, on their part, feel the fees are too high, and bad for business.

On whether cyber cafes are often portrayed as “shady joints”, Ashish Saboo, president, Association of Public ICT Tools Access Providers, which has internet cafe owners as members says, “We are service providers and shouldn’t be penalised for users’ actions. Cyber cafes are not public entertainment places.” This fee would mean that half of the monthly earnings of an internet cafe owner would go towards acquiring the licence, and will effectively render small and medium-sized internet cafes unviable, he adds.

Earlier, the cyber crime cell of the Mumbai police had initiated a move under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which made cyber cafe users show documents such as college or school IDs or driving licences as proof of identity and had the cyber cafes maintain a log book for users.

The Tamil Nadu police has also insisted on registration of all internet cafes in Chennai. This was done in an attempt to monitor Tamil militants using these cafes for communication. The registration fee, though, is Rs 75 per terminal.

Sify - IRCTC tie up for e-ticketing

admin — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0700

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2006 03:01:30 AM]

NEW DELHI: There is some good news for those who were looking for the convenience of booking railway tickets online, but did not have a credit card or a net banking facility to make that transaction on the net.

Internet company Sify has announced its tie up with Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) to make online railway ticketing service available at over 3,400 iWay cybercafes across 154 cities, on cash payments. As the first step, a pilot project at 10 iWays in Delhi has been kicked-off on Thursday.

“With the alliance in place, users can approach Sify iWay where the cafe administrator would book the railway ticket online, based on particulars such as date of travel and destination.

The customer then pays cash against the ticket and collects the ticket printout. In case of ticket cancellations, the customers will follow the standard cancellation process of IRCTC after which the customer gets cash against the cancellation,” PK Goel, managing director of IRCTC said.

But the convenience of e-ticketing would come at a price. Users opting to book e-tickets through the cash mode would have to shell out a transaction charge of Rs 15 in case of a sleeper class ticket and Rs 25 in case of AC ticket.

This is over and above the stipulated e-ticket charges of Rs 25 and Rs 40 for these two categories, respectively, in addition to the cost of the ticket itself. It is pertinent to mention that a maximum of six passengers can be booked under one ticket.

Mumbai Cyber cafe owners comply with police orders despite loss of business

web-admin — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 22:05:00 -0700

Afternoon Daily, Mumbai STAFF REPORTER made a survey of various Mumbai city cyber cafes & is happy to note a wide compliance of the recent Mumbai police order on maintaining the registers although not everybody visiting a cyber café wants to share personal information to use the facility.

Read full story:

Cyber cafes in the city have started keeping logbooks and recording all the details of the visitors who visit them. The Mumbai police had issued a notification on August 15, for a 15-day trail, asking cyber cafes to maintain such a logbook in addition to asking for photo identity cards of visitors before allowing them to use the cyber cafe. Another similar notification was issued on August 31, and cyber café owners put these up at their cafes. In it, Police Commissioner A. N. Roy had said that anti-social elements may take advantage of cyber cafes in Mumbai and there are chances of breach of peace and disturbance of public tranquillity, and there was grave danger to human lives as well as loss to the public property. On the condition of anonymity, a cyber café owner at Churchgate said, “Many of our visitors have understood the issue and are cooperating with us. In the initial stage some hesitated, but later they also started cooperating. As far as identifying any person who is involved in criminal activity, it should be very simple for us as their population in society is only one per cent and they should be able to be identified by their face only!” He added, “This order has brought our businesses down by about 15-20 per cent as some visitors argue and then go in search of other cafes where they might be allowed to use the facilities without identity cards. The police’s notification has become unaffordable for us as we have to keep one employee just to fill up the logbook. But this order is not followed by all cyber cafes in Mumbai as they do not want to lose their customers by inconveniencing them with personal details.” Khalique Batliwala of Cyberzone in Flora Fountain said, “After implementation of this rule you can be sure that terrorists will opt for something else, they will never use the same method for their plans. But as far as the checking is concerned, we have been doing this from earlier also, and in the initial stages visitors were not happy. But now that they understand why we have to do this, they started cooperating with us.” He further said, “As the Internet has become an important part of our lives, we get a lot of regular visitors and are familiar with them, but whenever we find anyone suspicious then we ask for identity cards or deny them entry.” Deputy Commissioner of Police R. N. Tadvi (Operations), said, “After the order most cyber café owners have started maintaining logbooks and are also allowing only those to enter who have valid identity cards. We are getting a good response from the cyber café owners as they understand our situation. As far as continuation of this order is concerned, until or unless the dust of security threats doesn’t settle down, this order will continue.”

Source cybernoon.com

Microsoft Xbox 360 set for pre-festive season launch

admin — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0700

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ TUESDAY, AUGUST 01, 2006 12:00:15 AM]

PUNE: The gaming market in India, although nascent, is set to witness action as Microsoft readies to launch its Xbox 360 video gaming and entertainment system. It is set to be launched in the festive season preceding Dassera and Diwali.

In a marketing move taken from the automotive sector, Microsoft has already raised Rs 5 crore through its pre-launch orders. Pre-booking, which opened across the country on June 9, saw Microsoft achieve its target of 10,000 orders, with people paying a deposit of Rs 5,000 each.

Of course, the scheme came with a 10% discount on the system along with freebies from its global partner, Adidas. “We had set ourselves a limit of 10,000 and we hit it,” Mohit Anand, country manager, Microsoft entertainment and devices division, India, said. He was in Pune as part of Microsoft’s seven-city marketing programme.

Pulling no punches, Microsoft is tying up financing for its India launch, even as it waits for the result of a global pilot currently running in Korea. This pilot is being run on a licencee model, where the system is licensed to a cyber cafe and there is a revenue sharing arrangement between Microsoft and the cyber cafe owner. Should this succeed, it could roll out globally.

Additionally, for the Indian market, it is looking to tie up financing the sale of the system, since this will fuel sales at the time of the launch.

“There will be local content in the games and entertainment system at the time of the launch and we will add more as we go. This will be developed by a third party but we will not offer local languages,” Mr Anand said.

There are an estimated 1.6m active gamers in the country. The global launch of the Xbox systems was in November ’05, in the US and European markets. Mr Anand said they have waited to launch the “all-in-one home entertainment platform” in India to ensure they can meet demand. A pre-order campaign in the country had drawn 55,000 leads from across the country.

Microsoft has addressed the likelihood of imported sets being sold in the country through a competitive pricing strategy. “We have ensured that it is not worthwhile to bring in an overseas console. The retail price, overseas, of the Xbox 360 system is $299-plus taxes.

In India, it will cost Rs 19,990 plus taxes. And we are adding a stand alone game which would otherwise cost $60. Which brings the Indian price very close to the global one. Moreover, the console is part of the electronics industry and India is in a different region from either Singapore or the US: so, sets bought there will not work here,” he added.

For Microsoft, the global gaming business was worth $4.5bn last year, when the global market was worth $24bn. With a market share of over 30%, Microsoft is at second position, behind Sony, despite being the last entrant, in ’01.

Railway minister flags off first cyber cafe on Station

web-admin — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0700

The Statseman, Kolkotta reports about the Asansol station, for the first time in the history of Eastern Railways, will have a cyber cafe with 2 mpbs Internet broadband and audio-video conferencing

E-mail on 7/11 lands prankster in police net

web-admin — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0700

BHOPAL: "Mumbai blasts were to avenge the desecration of Meena Tai's statue." The source of this claim, sent via e-mail to a local Hindi daily turned out to be a 22-year-old errant youth, who meant this as a prank and had no connection with 7/11.

The police, however, were not amused when they worked relentlessly for six hours to track the source of the e-mail and finally picked up Sumit Tamrakar, a Class XII dropout who sent the mail from a cyber cafe in old Bhopal area.

Bhopal SP Anant Singh received a call from the daily in the early hours of Wednesday, informing him of the contents of the e-mail which claimed responsibility for Mumbai blasts.

Cops trip on cafe raids

admin — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 08:14:50 -0700

Cops trip on cafe raids - Indian Express UP police haul up 25 youngsters in raids, charge them with obscenity, photograph them… attract charges of harassment AMAN SHARMA LUCKNOW, JANUARY 31 In a typically half-baked operation that showed no lessons had been learnt from similar raids in the past, Lucknow Police were left offering explanations today over their raids on two cyber cafes in Krishna Nagar area in which 25 youngsters, including 10 girls, were hauled up on obscenity charges. The youngsters were mostly from well-to-do families and as their parents landed up at the station demanding an explanation, police were forced to release them by 9 tonight. Most claimed they had been filing resumes or checking their mails when they were apprehended and their photos taken. Under fire over BSP legislator Raju Pal’s murder, the state police hardly needs a scandal of the kind that followed the Aligarh and Agra cyber cafe raids, which had drawn allegations of harassment from arrested youngsters and the NHRC’s attention. Incidentally, today too the media was called in to record the raids despite objections being raised the last time over the way photos of the youths had been displayed all over newspapers and TV. Today’s raids began around 2.45 pm, led by Circle Officer, Alambagh, Shachi Ghildiyal, an IPS officer under training. Ghildiyal says police received complaints from residents of the LDA Colony in Krishna Nagar of ‘‘immoral activities being carried on in internet cafe in the colony’’. ‘‘We sent some of our men to pose as customers and found the information correct. We conducted a raid at Lucknow Internet Cafe and found the adjoining Yash Internet Cafe was also indulging in the same. For Rs 10 per hour, they had virtually given an open licence to sex to these couples inside the cabins,’’ alleged Ghildiyal. The FIR accuses the youths of watching porn websites and sitting in objectionable positions inside the cabins. The owners of the two cafes were arrested and 16 computers were seized. Denying allegations of harassment, Ghildiyal said: ‘‘Besides watching porn websites, couples also had sex inside the small cabins of these cafes. The cabins have high walls and can be bolted from inside. Also the entire first floor of these cafes was only meant for couples, with single girls or boys not allowed there. We found condoms strewn all over an empty plot near the cafes.’’ Ghildiyal admitted that they had ascertained that at least one girl was just typing in her resume, but added the rest of the raid was genuine and that those raising a hue and cry were the same couples who had been found in objectionable positions . ‘‘We called their parents and so they are levelling harassment charges out of embarrassment,’’ she said. ‘‘I was typing my resume, which I had to submit to Lucknow Public School, when police walked in and said I was watching porn. They called up the media, who clicked our photos as if we were criminals. No policeman listened to our pleas,’’ said one of the girls. One of the girls said police made two boys stand outside the cabin in which she was working and the media took photographs. ‘‘It was so humiliating. The policemen had no clue as to what Internet is,’’ she cried.