A friend of mine is opening an internet cafe near a university, I think that markets shrunk and he shldn't.
Answer:
Actually, the internet aspect is pretty universal at this point. If he's intending on charging for internet access then he'll go broke fairly quickly. Even some McDonalds are WiFi now. However if he's offering a quality cafe with good coffee and food he has a chance. If the Cafe's in London charge for internet use he may want to consider offering it as a "free service" with coffee purchase. It won't matter if the coffee is a little more expensive if it comes with a service people want. And if it is GOOD coffee with good food available, he'll attract customers.
Since he's near a university campus, he may also want to consider expanding it into a Cafe/Bookstore. There are hundreds of Cafes here that always have seats. Find one at the bookstore though and you are doing great! They are always busy as people can eat, snack, get their coffee fix, do research and pick up the book s they need in one stop.
Depends on whether they have wireless at thew uni
where is it located? will there be another internet cafe within walking distance? If not then yes, go for it, if theres a student population in close proximity there will be need, just make sure the profit margins are realistic.
Possibly a lot of students & school kids may not have access to home internet, and may use it. Also, he/she could look to be inovative..
There's a cafe opened in our town recently called 'Surfin Cafe', which I think is a franchise.
It's a reasonable quality coffee shop with a few (3) computers along one wall.
The computers are free for customers of the cafe but interestingly enough they aren't always in use.
The staff don't seem to bother checking who is using the computers, after all they are 'free', so they just don't bother.
So I suspect that your friend will have to think carefully about what it is he's selling.
Perhaps he should think about setting up a wireless hotspot and attracting people with laptops into the coffee shop, minimal computer equipment to be maintained then.
not a viable business
All Universities that I know of provide their students with free internet access in any event, so I ask myself: what would be the point?!
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