By Fred Richardson in Beijing Special to ChinaOnline News

(1 June 2001) Wangba are everywhere in China.

In the past year, the number of wangba (Internet cafés) or public places to shang wang (go online) have increased dramatically. Access costs one-third to one-fifth of what it did in January 2000, and the computers and connections are better and faster.

And this trend shows no sign of changing.

The cost now is typically 1.5 yuan (US$0.18) to 6 yuan (US$0.72) an hour to sit at a 500-megahertz (MHz) or better computer with lots of random-access memory (RAM) and a fast connection. That’s affordable, even for a Chinese student. A few wangba sell prepaid cards, giving a lower rate, often half of the one posted.

Yet, even though there are many, trying to actually find a wangba on the streets of China can be difficult.

If you ask a person over 30 years old, you’ll often get this response: "Huh?" But if you ask teen-agers, they’ll know where to go. Wangba is a common usage term, but be careful—if pronounced with the wrong tones, it can easily be offensive or funny, being mistaken for "turtle," slang for cuckold.

Young users and their surfing activities

According to the seventh Survey Report on China's Internet Development issued on Jan. 17 by Beijing’s Internet monitoring agency, the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), China has approximately 22.5 million Internet users.

The Chinese government is actively pushing people to use the Internet, and the wangba provides access for most new and young users. It appears impossible to count the number of wangba users, but it seems like the most rapidly growing sector of Internet activity in China. The users are mostly young—students under 25—although it is possible to see just about any kind of person in a wangba.

At a glance, over half of the activity is chatting by using instant-messaging services like Shenzhen Tencent Computer System Co.’s OICQ and America Online Inc.’s ICQ.

Second in popularity seems to be network games, with e-mail a close third. Searching for information or reading the news is also common, but less popular.

A student in a teachers’ college, Dong Zhimin, told ChinaOnline via e-mail, "What I can see from the college computer center is very limited, as many Web sites are blocked. From there, I can only visit domestic sites, mainly in the education network."

Dong added, "For example, I cannot even get on Yahoo! on campus. To be honest, after two years of using the online service at school, I still do not see how much new information I have gotten from the Internet. I prefer wangba, even though it costs me more money. I can visit many sites, including foreign, Hong Kong and Taiwan sites, even politically sensitive sites. But if I use [the] Internet in my school’s computer center, I pay just 15 yuan [US$1.81] per month for [an] unlimited time. I do my writing and research there."

The Chinese government recently announced a rule banning people under 18 from the wangba. However, wangba operators seem to pay little attention to this rule. Young surfers are visible everywhere, especially in the wangba located near middle schools.

A young woman named Dodie said, "As far as I am concerned, more and more Chinese hug the Internet with interest, and some spend lots of hours and money for surfing."

A high school student, Yang Yue, also said in an e-mail message, "The Internet is growing very fast in China. Now lots of people use the Internet at home and in school. I often use ICQ and e-mail. I often chat with foreigners by ICQ at wangba. Sometimes I send some messages to friends by e-mail. It is very quickly and cheap, I like it very much."

A booming business in some parts

The authorities keep track of the wangba and sometimes raid them looking for illegal activity. The operator is supposed to watch the users to make sure they do not visit illegal sites.

In Beijing, a wangba manager told me, "The police can drop in and check my computers for illegal use, and fine me 3,000 yuan [US$362.45] the first time they [find] something and maybe take away my license [the] second time."

Like many things in China, guanxi (connections or relations) is probably necessary for success.

But a wangba is good business, even with all the problems and changing regulations. While the competition is tough, with the prices falling continuously, the number of users is increasing even faster and new wangba open frequently.

In smaller cities, the owners seem to be mostly men in their early 20s who often use the ground floor of the family house. These are typically small operations, with eight to 15 computers.

In Beijing, by contrast, it seems to be a big business. One particularly good wangba has been open about a month, it uses a two megabits per second (Mbps) cable connection and has 150 computers, all with PIII800 128 megabytes (MB) RAM, running Windows in four languages. Investment in the computers alone could cost around 1.5 million yuan (US$181,209.76).

The manager, Hong Xue, said, "Rent alone is 50,000 yuan [US$6,040.84] per month, and payroll for the staff of 32 is 25,000 yuan [US$3,020.42] per month. I worry about how to make enough money. The computers are only 50 percent busy."

This place has a good location in Haidian, the main university district, and is just two doors away from a McDonald’s, so the rent is very high.

Back in January 2000, in smaller, out-of-the-way cities in Guangxi province, one could usually find just one wangba that was not too busy and usually run by China Telecom. Yet, in those same places, one can now find 10 or 15 private ones, all very busy.

New private wangba seem to open almost daily. Interestingly, Guangxi, a relatively poor province, seems to have a very open and free policy relating to the Internet, especially wangba. Sichuan, Hunan, Shanxi, Shandong and many other provinces are also reportedly open like Guangxi.

By contrast, in Xiamen, Fujian province, a very rich city, there seemed to be only a half-dozen wangba in the area around Xiamen University and few in other parts of the city—until students led the way to some underground ones.

They were hidden out of sight, hard to spot, with nonexistent or small signs. Sources said that many weren't registered and that the situation all around Fujian was about the same. A companion said he believed the police knew about all of them, and, if a directive came down, could seal the doors immediately.

A Xiamen newspaper reporter also told ChinaOnline that the process of licensing a wangba is difficult and expensive in Fujian, requiring many steps in the application.

The big picture

Internet regulations come from Beijing, but each province has a significant amount of control, and authorities in each city also have some local autonomy. Consequently, in different places, there is great variation in policy, regulations, service and price.

A Chinese journalist, whose job is reporting on information technology, said in an e-mail message, "China Telecom’s fee is difficult to understand. The fact is, even though they’ve cut the price down several times, the fee is too high for the Chinese. People think this is one of the difficulties slowing [the] development of the Internet now."

Regarding China Telecom’s monopoly, the journalist also noted, "In most cities, China Telecom is the only ISP [Internet service provider], but they are different in different cities. I mean they are a little autonomous and the rules are not alike."

At this point, the wangba seem to be in a precarious position, and there are regular reports of closures in various cities. During the first two weeks of May, there seemed to be a crackdown in progress across China, with unlicensed places being closed and licensed ones being required to reapply for their licenses.

But nearly everything changes daily in China—especially things related to the Internet.