Currently, there are many thousands of cyber cafes in India. It is estimated that by 2010, the number of cyber cafes will be around 260,000.

A recent Cyber-Nielsen survey revealed the type of users who are visiting these cyber cafes. The survey results are based on an online survey of 11,989 visitors via 3,500 cafes. Here's a summary:

- 90% of audience in Cyber Cafes is Male.

- 90% of audience is in the age bracket of 15 - 35.

- 52% of audience is Graduate or Post Graduate.

- 50% of audience accessing Cyber Cafes is Socio Economic Class A.

- More than 75% of audience is Socio Economic Class AB.

- More than 40% of audience in Cyber Cafes is Employed.

- More than 70% of audience takes decision for buying electronic appliance.

- Nearly 60% takes decision for buying Household durables.

- Personal Computer Ownership is highest amongst audience.

- 91% of audience owns a Mobile Phone.

- 39% of audience owns an iPod.

- 80% of audience owns a 2 Wheeler.

- 47% of audience owns a Debit Card.

- On average, an individual visiting a cyber café visits a gymnasium 3 times a week, a coffee shop 2.5 times a week, and a restaurant twice a week.

- Top activities done while accessing Internet include: email/chat, information search, download music / movies, job search and online gaming. See report for full list of activities.

- More than 80% of audience is using internet for more than 1 year and more than 40% of audience is using internet for more than 5 yrs.

To view the full results of the Cyber-Nielsen Survey, click here.

90% male? I don't think so. The more upscale the cyber cafe I visited, the more women. Smart entrepreneurs locate their cyber cafes in malls and similar places where kids go to socialize, find dates, etc. Maybe the seedy cyber cafes attract few women. I saw a much higher percentage of women than 10%.

NewYorkDude, interesting that you should say that. Perhaps many women simply didn't respond to the online survey? Or as you say, it could be that seedy locations were chosen, and hence the low number of women users?

I take it you went to cyber cafes when you were in India? I've only ever been to a couple cyber cafes, and that was when I was in London, England. I didn't like them much as I felt I had very little privacy, and there were so many computers crammed in one room. NewYorkDude, what was your overall experience with cyber cafes in India?

I had network service in the apartment in which I lived for the year. The service was very shaky. It was on and off all the time. Plus electricity was on and off for the entire neighborhood all the time, at an average of once a day for a period of a few minutes to a few hours almost every day. I don't know how electrical and computer network service are in Mumbai, New Delhi and Chennai (Bangalore, where I was, is now the #3 city in India), but service in Bangalore leaves a lot to be desired.

There were two internet cafes within very easy walking distance from my apartment which I used for various reasons maybe a dozen times over the course of a year. Neither cafe was very upscale. Both were thriving businesses with many customers. I never counted noses, so I can't say percentages of men/women, but since both places were marginally seedy, relatively low count of women.

Sify, one of India's major internet companies, had cyber cafes all over the city, each with about two dozen computers. Some were more upscale than others. Many women clients, but I didn't count noses.

In the upscale shopping mall I went to fairly frequently, The Forum, there was a big cyber cafe, run by Sify or another major company. A very large percentage of women.

Two corrections to my original post:

I was thinking like an American when I wrote the word 'dating.' Indians for the most part do not have a dating culture. India is in transition from an arranged marriage culture to a love marriage culture. Young kids meet and mingle in a way that their parents never did. But I don't think young kids in India 'date' the way Americans and Canadians date (and I hear young kids in America no longer 'date' the way my generation 'dated' but that's another story). In other words, young kids, the ones who use computers at cyber cafes, meet and flirt etc at cyber cafes, but I doubt whether they do so in the same way Americans or Canadians might.

Also I used the word 'entrepreneurs.' When I was in India there was a big debate about the lifespan of cyber cafes: would they survive, and in what form? The first wave of cyber cafes was established and run by individuals. When I arrived the second wave of cyber cafes was run by big companies like Sify. They were killing the little guy shops. There were many lonely little shops all over (I used some in other cities when I was in Kerala). As I wrote elsewhere on this board, individual Indians still don't have computers in their homes, for the most part. Some do, of course. But certainly not the majority. Cyber cafes will be a necessity for quite a while. In terms of men/women, women do not want to be left out of the computer revolution, so they will have to go to cyber cafes for a long time into the future if they want to participate in computer life.

In another thread, I posted a link to this article, which states:

NewYorkDude, does this seem accurate to you? Also, do you know if there are more cyber cafes in rural areas or urban areas?

That doesn't surprise me. I hear these days people even flirt at the supermarket.

That's too bad. Are many of these individually-run cyber cafes shutting down because these big companies are entering the cyber cafe market?

BTW, I appreciate the wealth of information you've been providing on INForum. I'm gaining a better perspective of India through your posts.

No answer about rural cafes. Not enuf experience. Yes, women clerks, but I don't know enuf to say anything about their skills.

They flirt at supermakets? Darn!!!!! They never flirted at me! Ooops, I take that back. I did have a little minor flirting thing going with a Tamil clerk at my local Subhiksha (a very large, quirky supermarket chain which I read this week is in serious financial trouble).

I used a few cyber cafes here and there that looked successful and were run by individuals, so all is not lost for the small entrepreneur. But there's money to be made in cyber cafes, so it's inevitable that they'll be Starbucks-ified.

Nothing beats going to India yourself. I don't know what your wallet is like. One can travel at any economic level in India. If you don't have a big wallet, there are still many wonderful adventures waiting for you if you go there. Think about it.

Ooops, you're Canadian. I don't know if you have Starbucks. But you have Horton's. Same difference.

My family and I are planning to go to India sometime in the future. I'll be sure to check out some cyber cafes.

Actually, I'm British . Yes, we also have Starbucks here in Canada, and I get your point about cyber cafes eventually being Starbucks-ified.