The Future Of I-Café Operators

Based on the previous indicators, the i-cafe industry is facing some very challenging time in 2009 and the rest of 2010 till signs of an economic recovery would come. We would be faced with the following scenarios:

1. Decline in Sales Figures – computer rental business would never be outdated since there would still be people needing to access the internet. People would be spending less in terms of computer rentals as their spending power decreases. They would have to prioritized their spending habits to much more important things. A recent survey in the United States revealed that about 30% of the respondents said that they would not be spending money to buy new clothes for 2009. If that could happen in the United States think about the situation here in the Philippines wherein it is slowly feeling the affects of the global financial crisis. As our OFWs come home the i-cafes would be losing business on instant messaging services or chat. As the worsening economic conditions hit us, there would be more children attending public schools or would not be able to study anymore due to the lack of money to finance their studies. It would mean less students doing their projects and less time in playing their favorite games.

2. More Competitions to Come – As more people are being laid off and as the deterioration in the overseas employment sectors get worst, more and more people would want to engage in business to invest what ever money that they have received from being laid off from work. The i-café business has always been and will always be an appealing investment opportunity for people who would like to have their own business enterprise. More people will set up their respective i-cafés irregardless of the number of i-cafés closing down during the year.

3. Prices for Computer Rental per Hour Will Be Lower – Nobody would like to see this to happen but as competition gets higher with the increase in number of players in the industry and the shrinking market, i-café operators would resort to offering special promotions just to get people into their respective internet cafes. What they don’t realize is that through this promos the current rate of P10 per hour could go down to as much as half to P5.00 per hour for computer rental. Impossible you might say but, even nowadays, I can see cafes offering as low as P7.50 per hour through their promotions. What would prevent this from further deteriorating?