Internet cafes become "Internet cafes", but it is not as simple as providing coffee service.

When it comes to Internet cafes, many people's impression of them may still stay in a dark, smoky, bad place full of Internet addicted teenagers and idle people in society.

Nowadays, in first-and second-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, it is rare to see the sign of "Internet cafes". This is not that Internet cafes are gone, but that they are quietly reinvented in the form of "Internet cafes" in the public view.

According to chopsticks play thinking (ID:kwthink), 80% of the more than 1,000 network service business premises in Beijing, that is, traditional "Internet cafes", have been transformed and upgraded, and the profit model has also expanded from a single Internet fee income to e-sports games, catering and other value-added services.

The popularity and performance improvement of home networks and home computers once brought the operation of Internet cafes, which depend on Internet fees for a living, to a low ebb. Now, with the upsurge of e-sports, Internet cafes have found their place again. More and more Internet cafes begin to provide game-versus-game services and marketing, and new entrants begin to aim at e-sports as soon as they come.

In April this year, Mojie e-sports, an Internet cafe with a background of Jay Chou's investment in Shenzhen, attracted people's attention with the price of 300 yuan per hour for VIP seats. In addition to the price, dark style luxury decoration, high-end game consoles and peripherals, Internet cafe food and water bar with open-air seats and taste comparable to Starbucks beverage has become a bright spot in the industry.

In contrast, although most Internet cafes are not such "top-end" Internet cafes, nor do they have the star effect of Jay Chou and the large investment of venture capital IDG, but they all strive to upgrade to a more high-end format than Internet cafes. As a new stronghold for young people's one-stop consumption of catering and entertainment, what type of Internet cafes can live a prosperous life?

Positioning: high-end and comfortable decoration style, with equal emphasis on leisure and entertainment and online game service functions.

Internet cafes, that is, Internet cafes, are often called Netcafe,Internet Caf é in foreign countries. They have been popular in Europe and the United States for many years. The initial function of Internet cafes is to provide a comfortable and fast Internet environment for business people. Therefore, compared with the traditional Internet places, Internet cafes have elegant environment, high-end facilities and many services, and gradually become a new form of business with both entertainment and leisure functions.

Now customers have higher and higher requirements for the Internet environment, the poor environment of Internet cafes in the past, the continuous loss of old customers, not to mention attracting new customers to spend, Internet cafes can make high-end customers who need to surf the Internet in public places have a better experience.

Like other consumer places, the positioning and location of Internet cafes is still the key to success. In the face of different consumer groups in different areas, targeted adjustments should be made according to local conditions.

For example, the positioning of Internet cafes around the university is generally based on games and competitions; the positioning of Internet cafes located in the business district is mainly based on the petty bourgeoisie audience, which is relatively adjusted according to the consumption characteristics of the surrounding high-end communities and shopping people; the ordinary residential area is generally positioned as leisure and entertainment.

For example, Wind Butterfly Internet Cafe, as one of the sub-brands of Internet Fish, is different from the Internet Fish Internet Cafe, which is positioned as a "high-end quality Internet cafe" with a customer base of male customers aged 18-35, while Fengdie Internet Cafe is positioned as an "Internet cafe boutique". The customer groups of Internet cafes are mainly female users who are willing to enjoy the slow life in the city.

As the goal clearly points to the female Internet cafe market, Fengdie Internet cafes join the store site selection business circle to require a community business area, soft clothing using warm lighting, cloth sofas, a large area of wall green plants, literary style wall painting, some stores will also put flowers in the bar location in the season, occasionally send one or two to customers, publicity has also signed an entertainment star Angelababy to become its brand spokesman All these indicate the female orientation of the brand.

In the catering part, Fengdie features a high-looking diet combination. Drinks do not use disposable paper cups or plastic cups, but are filled with glass cups and enamel cylinder lamps, which are delicious and good-looking, and can show intentions and delicacy.

Business model: game area, living area and fashionable catering area cooperate with each other to attract money.

Upgrading from an ordinary Internet bar to an Internet cafe costs a lot of money in the early stage, and the cost of decoration alone is easily more than one million yuan. plus rent and high-equipped computers, the total investment is at least five to six million yuan, so basically the traditional Internet cafe has either collapsed or spent a lot of money to become an Internet cafe.

However, even if a large amount of money is spent on transformation and upgrading, it is still difficult for Internet cafes to make money by relying solely on the cost of Internet access.

According to the research on the thinking of playing with chopsticks, mature Internet cafes make money through supporting services, and the business income of catering facilities at the bar of Internet cafes cannot be underestimated, even accounting for 1/4 of the turnover of Internet cafes, with the enhancement of the leisure function of Internet cafes. This proportion will continue to increase.

There are Internet cafe brands from the 300 square meters of business area, take 100 square meters to do light meal area, will provide beer, cocktails and other beverages, but also make some spaghetti and other western food. The simple dining area is designed for quick payback, and after opening up, Internet cafes quickly begin to make a profit.

On this point, the new entrants to the Internet have done a better job.

Only one year after opening, there is the K2 e-sports living Hall with the label of "highest daily drink sales" in Guangzhou. At the beginning, the brand positioning of the K2 operator is very clear. "A cross-border innovative network leisure place integrating professional e-sports, leisure and entertainment, fashionable catering and life services".

Therefore, the operator designed and constructed the main stage of the game area in accordance with the standards of the international competition. The Shuiba area, on the other hand, has made reference to the online celebrity beverage stores in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and other places, designing the most popular items among young people, paying attention to their looks, and echoing the temperament of the high-end game area-such as "Chaomang Milk Tips", "Black currant Star Ice" and "domineering Red Pomelo". Customers are almost required to enter the store, and even begin to cooperate with a takeout platform to sell nearly 1000 cups a day.

Management: understand e-sports, service, Internet cafe and catering

As the Internet cafe is a combination of "net" and "coffee", the management team and operation team also need to be different from other formats.

The water bar and dining area, which undertake the personalized identity of Internet cafes, have always been one of the sharp tools for Internet cafes operators to try their best to win customers. For example, e-sports uses the coffee machine Simonelli APPIA2, which costs as much as 17000 yuan, which is only used by many professional cafes.

There are also many operators who want to highlight the attractiveness of water bars and become Starbucks in the Internet cafe industry, so they provide catering service 24 hours a day and work three shifts, including managers and foremen hired from Starbucks. 20 employees, such as cashiers, water bar operators, waiters and cleaners, also have coffee shop experience, but such staffing is unreasonable.

Do not understand the inherent laws of the operation of Internet cafes is the biggest problem. E-sports games, event activities, theme marketing, these can not only provide good food and services, marketing based on online games is the key. Moreover, the staffing around catering is too cumbersome, not only the manpower cost accounts for half of the operating cost, but the really effective operation has not been done.

Chopsticks play thinking that there are two kinds of Internet cafes are difficult to get back to profit: one is just slightly decorated and marked with the name of "Internet cafe", in fact, it is still a traditional Internet cafe; the other is to blindly follow the trend, high-cost investment in Internet cafes, but the lack of operational management personnel, most of them do not have professional skills and management advantages.

Truly effective management will find a balance in the operation of games and water bars, so that catering services can effectively provide convenience for members who surf the Internet.

For example, in terms of catering design, managers can realize that members are not willing to spend a lot of time eating "dinner" when playing games, and large portions of staple food do not meet their needs. so they provide soup bags, roast sales and other foods that can be imported quickly without delaying the game.

For example, in terms of marketing, Internet cafes will have a special online marketing system and personal docking. Members want to drink coffee when they surf the Internet, but they don't want to get up to buy it, let alone shout to the staff. At this time, just open the page and buy all kinds of drinks online, and the staff will send the prepared drinks to the members.

Conclusion

Internet cafes began to be hot with the rise of e-sports, but with the development of online video games, new difficulties began to emerge-recently, "Arena of Valor" became popular, making more Internet bar operators really feel that "cold winter is coming."

It is understood that many Internet cafes have been able to maintain some growth in the past two years, but there has been a cliff-style recession since the second half of last year, with nearly half of them losing money and the operating cycle getting shorter and shorter. This situation is directly related to the sudden rise of mobile games. In the past, players would call their friends to Internet cafes to play games, but now as long as they make an appointment in the WeChat group, each person can gang up with a mobile phone, which undoubtedly greatly affects the business of Internet cafes.

Some savvy Internet cafe operators began to actively respond, such as squeezing out a space to do mobile games, only need to prepare personalized tables and chairs, provide a stable WiFi and charging interface; some Internet cafes began to add board games, billiards, KTV, Texas, X-box and other entertainment methods to Internet cafes, so that customers spend more time in Internet cafes. The longer customers spend in Internet cafes, the more they spend on meals.

Chopsticks play thinking that Internet cafes have become a new force in the experiential consumption format, the mainstream consumption consciousness of Internet cafe customers is: time and budget are the scarcest resources for consumers, and their time is precious. Hope to enjoy more fun under the unit time allocation, so the one-stop and cross-border consumption mode of Internet cafes will be more and more favored.

Whether the positioning and management can be in line with the management core of "network" and "coffee" determines whether the Internet cafe can continue to produce value and vitality.