Internet café

An Internet café, also known as a cybercafé, is a café (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 cafe will generally also offer refreshments or other services such as phone repair. Internet cafes 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 Wi-Fi hotspots, eroding the distinction between the Internet café and normal cafés. The early history of public access online networking sites is largely unwritten and undocumented. There are many experiments that can lay claim to being precursors to internet cafés. In March 1988, the 'Electronic Café' 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 SFnet Coffeehouse Network 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. The concept of a café with full Internet access (and the name Cybercafé) was invented in early 1994 by Ivan Pope.