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Towards the end of 1999, it is interesting to see the amazing new dimension brought to the café understanding in London… At first sight, without looking through a magnifier, the most significant qualities of these cafes are the number of the computers that they have, the low prices and the existing professional management. In the Victoria district (covering Victoria, Trafalgar Square, Tothenam Court Road, Oxford Street, High Street and Kensington), the internet cafes that have been opened in five main points are serving the people with 2300 computers. The managers of the company are planning to apply this project within a very short time in the other cities of England and Europe and their target is to have fifty cafes. The company has increased the number of its customers through the advertising campaign and the other marketing activites it has made during December ‘99. In the last month of the year for the purpose of thanking the customers for their increased interest, starting after midnight until 10 a.m. in the morning, the customers were served free of charge. In addition to this, a considerable decrease was made in the daily serving charges. During the time of the promotion there were three cafes and 1200 computers which were on duty. In that one month it had not been difficult to increase the demand in this cosmopolite looking city. There was an important increase in the number of the users who communicated with their friends through the e-mail. As everybody became used to this system, an extraordinary communication net work was established. Now, the harvest is being reaped***** The price mechanism in these cafes is arranging itself automatically; as the number of the computers that are being used increases, the price is increasing too. In other words, as the number of the idle computers decrease, the price increases. For example, if your friend before you is buying a usage time of forty minutes for 1 pound, you may have to be satisfied with having thirty minutes for the same amount of money. Due to this interesting price mechanism, when you drop by at the internet café around 2p.m. after midnight, you may be buying four hours of service with the same amount of money. The person who had felt that there was such a need in London was a business man with Asian origin… I think that most probably, the company who is using the big cities as a stepping stone for achieving its higher objectives must be working his brain team very much******Ahmet F. Yuksel
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