Can you still remember the youth of blowing in the wind in the Internet cafe industry in the past 20 years？

When it comes to youth, what do you think of? Is it a three-year college entrance examination and five-year simulation, or is it ignorant of youthful feelings, or is it yourself who just joined the company?

Maybe both, maybe none, but when it comes to entertainment activities in youth, I believe many people will think of a place. Parents regard it as a modern opium den, and students think it is a spiritual paradise. There are countless people who squandered their youth there, and there are countless stories that took place there. The name of that place is called an Internet cafe.

It’s a place to squander youth.

Remember those days when you saved your breakfast money and went to the Internet cafe? The author’s Internet cafe in memories of youth was about ten years ago. At that time, the Internet cafe was synonymous with dirty, messy and poor. The air in the Internet cafe was full of the smell of second-hand smoke and instant noodles. Every three steps, you might see an empty can discarded on the ground, and it was probably a red bull.

At that time, in China, the possession of personal computers was not high. Having a computer at home was already a symbol of a well-off family, and most people’s computer performance was relatively low. Therefore, many people, mostly young people eager to get in touch with new things, including students, would go to Internet cafes to experience the fun of surfing and computer games.

I think of the reason why I went to the Internet cafe for the first time. At that time, I actually had a computer at home. The author who had been exposed to computer games was like opening Pandora’s box and playing computer games in his spare time, so the computer was locked in another room by my parents.

I have tasted the taste of playing computer games, how can I stop so easily, otherwise there would be no term Internet addiction. If so, that summer, under the leadership of my old driver classmates who often go to Internet cafes, I went to Internet cafes for the first time. I still remember that it was the second day of junior high school, and the game I played was Dungeon and Warriors.

Internet cafes not only consumed the study time of most students who did not have excellent self-control, but also were the place where students first came into contact with society. Therefore, parents hated this place, fearing that their immature children would be taught badly.

However, students believe that they can control themselves, but they only go to have fun occasionally. But in fact, Internet cafes were really chaotic at that time. There were frequent fights and even murders in the Internet cafes on the author’s side, and parents’ worries were not unreasonable.

But now, in the past, there were only computers and three or four staff members, and the internet cafes that lacked management and were simple and messy have long been eliminated by the times. Instead, they are internet cafes with standardized management and both entertainment and leisure functions. The target population is young college students and business people with certain spending power.

In fact, these places that provide commercial Internet access are all Internet cafes in a broad sense. From the embryonic form of the first Internet cafe in China, "Wigate" computer room to today’s Internet cafes, the Internet cafe industry has experienced several twists and turns and ups and downs in the past 20 years.

The beginning of internet cafe dream

In 1996, the first Internet cafe in China appeared in Shanghai, named "Wigate". At that time, Wigate was not called an Internet cafe, but a computer room where people could play local games. At that time, Gewitt’s charging standard was staggering 40 yuan per hour, and at that time, the national average wage was around 500 yuan, which was worthy of being rare.

In November, 1996, Beijing’s first Ximen Shihuakai Internet Cafe opened, becoming the first Internet Cafe in China. The name "Internet cafe" became popular.

Gold-absorbing industry in full swing

For people at that time, computers were a very strange thing. Most people didn’t have the financial resources to buy a computer. It can be said that personal computers only had the prefix "personal" in China at that time. Internet cafes have become the most important places for Chinese people to surf the Internet.

Entering the Millennium, with the rapid development of the Internet industry, it met the growing social entertainment needs of Chinese people at that time. World of Warcraft, CS games, QQ chat software and various online movies are the imprint of online entertainment in that era. Internet cafes naturally became a very profitable sunrise industry. The owners with five Internet cafes can be worth more than one million, and countless people began to enter this industry for gold.

Winter comes to an end.

After the glory, it must be a landslide, but no one expected him to come so quickly. In 2002, at the end of winter, the "Blue Speed" Internet cafe in Beijing was set on fire, killing 24 people, four of whom were minors.

Later, after investigation, it was found that this Internet cafe did not have any business license, and the owner of the Internet cafe operated illegally, and the direct cause of many deaths was to open the "overnight package" to lock Internet surfers in the Internet cafe.

Since then, the supervision of Internet cafes by relevant departments has gradually become stricter. In the same year, the Regulations on the Administration of Internet Service Business Places came into effect, in which minors are forbidden to enter Internet cafes as the focus of work. In the past, a rented house, a few computers and a few staff members were able to open an Internet cafe. Gone forever, the Internet cafe industry began to have management norms, and the operating costs began to rise.

In fact, the "Blue Speed" incident is only the fuse. The root cause is that Internet cafes make money but lack effective management, which will eventually lead to various hidden dangers, which will break out sooner or later. Especially in those years, many Internet cafes took minors with immature minds as the main consumer groups, and this influence is even worse.

What makes the Internet cafe industry more difficult to develop than the increasingly strict supervision is that with the economic development, the disposable income of Chinese people is getting higher and higher, and personal computers are becoming popular and entering thousands of households. From then on, "What’s the difference between going to an Internet cafe and surfing the Internet at home? "It has become a problem that all Internet cafe practitioners have been thinking about.

In 2012, the Internet cafe industry began to reshuffle, and the number of Internet cafes in China declined for the first time. The law of survival of the fittest exists in all industries, but this phenomenon will be amplified in depressed industries. At that time, even worse, smartphones and tablets became popular, and people entered the mobile era. Not to mention Internet cafes, the whole traditional PC industry became a sunset industry.

Industry upgrading — — A resurgence or a return to life?

In 2013, after 10 years of cold winter, the Ministry of Culture announced the lifting of the approval of single Internet cafes. In 2014, relevant departments jointly issued a notice to adjust the management policies of the Internet cafe industry, fully liberalize the approval of Internet cafes, and promote the transformation and upgrading of the Internet cafe industry.

Industry upgrading is a new attempt by relevant departments to re-inject vitality into traditional industries in recent years. In recent years, the upgrading of Internet cafe industry can be summarized from several aspects: standardization, high-end brand, refined service and audience segmentation, which is also called "Internet cafe" today.

In fact, as early as 2009, there was the first Internet cafe in China, and an attempt was made to transform the Internet cafe.

Compared with traditional Internet cafes, Internet cafes will subdivide the audience, provide different services to different audiences, divide different audience areas such as audio-visual areas and e-sports areas, and provide decoration environment, atmosphere, computer hardware and peripheral accessories that match the theme, with first-class services, so as to make Internet cafes a place for modern college students and small white-collar workers to get together and have fun.

At this time, the audience of internet cafes has already become young people with certain spending power, instead of taking low-income people as the main target audience in the past. In addition to internet charges, additional services, such as catering services, have become a major source of income for Internet cafes.

Esports Internet cafe

This is the Internet cafe industry thinking about "What’s the difference between going to an Internet cafe and surfing the Internet at home?"? "The final answer to this question. Why is it that almost everyone now has a computer and can watch free movies at home, but more and more people go to the cinema to spend money on movies every year?

With the development of domestic economy, when people have solved the problem of food and clothing, they are more willing to spend money on spiritual satisfaction. Cinema can provide a shocking user experience that can’t be seen at home, and the advantage of watching the latest movies in the copyright era. It can also provide a place for friends and couples to get together, share ideas and socialize, so that consumers feel that spending money is worthwhile.

That’s what Internet cafes want to do now, providing consumers with an online user experience that they can’t get at home, and a place for friends to get together and socialize. In recent years, the popular "e-sports" games such as LOL, DOTA and Jedi Survival have also become the east wind of the development of Internet cafes. After all, it is really much more interesting for everyone to get together and play at home alone.

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In addition to the popular theme of e-sports, what development direction will Internet cafes have? What impact will the Internet cafes that grow after the cold winter have on this generation of young people?

Everything is unknown. But what is clear is that the internet cafes, which lack standardized management, are dirty and messy, and make countless young people trapped in games that can never be finished, have disappeared in the streets and alleys of the city with the neon lights gradually removed, and when it comes to taking pictures, it is already too late.