Sleeping in Internet Cafes: The Next 300 Million Chinese Users [Slideshare]

By On 08/05/2011 · 5 Comments

Internet cafes are a huge phenomenon across China. They have a somewhat unsavory reputation as a place to play games or watch porn, but internet cafes serve as a second home or cheap child-care for some Chinese.

This an older slideshare that I somehow missed, but an amazing look into the lives of many Chinese netizens.

Sleeping in Internet Cafes: The Next 300 Million Chinese Users [Annotated]

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The author is Tricia Wang (@triciawang), who does an incredible job of researching the impact of technology upon the lives of Chinese people. The talk was originally presented at SXSW (South by Southwest) in March 2011. Uploaded and reprinted with permission.

We’ve also covered China’s 485 million netizens from a more sociological perspective in “The Story of W&L” and “Shanzhai Factory Life: The Making of a Motoloba.”

Sleeping in internet cafes... it's so true.

h/t to Patrick Searle (@PatrickSearle) of W+K Shanghai

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  • http://twitter.com/21tigermike Michael A. Robson

    Nice step up from sleeping in the park (http://goo.gl/N4hoJ) or sleeping in the library(http://goo.gl/pRljL) :P

    Anyway.. sounds like a nice complement to the Japanese tube hotels.

  • Anonymous

    This is a brilliant slide show. Some great tie-ins with cultural theorists. Well done for sourcing this!

    Mark at http://www.idgconnect.com/blog

  • merlene shedlock

    Where ever i lay my mouse is my home?

  • Jonathan

    What’s ironic is that China’s poorer netizens tend to spend more money on virtual goods and make companies like Tencent a bundle of money. 

    As the web gets more mobile, do you guys think fewer people will go to net bars? In most of the developing world, mobile internet is rapidly outpacing traditional internet adoption. Internet cafes or net bars are definitely points of connection or contact zones for China’s migrant laborers, but that might be challenged by mobile.

    http://www.china2valley.com
    @Jonathan_Heeter:twitter 

    • Anonymous

      I agree. Although I’m not sure if that’s a good thing! Technology is isolating us (physically) enough as it is!

      Mark at http://www.idgconnect.com/blog