The Indian LAN cafes helped many players show their talent and skill in the era where affording a high configured PCs with a good internet connection was pretty expensive for most of the gamers. In this article, we’ll discuss the business of LAN cafe in India, Is a cyber cafe business in India still profitable? how to make it profitable and the investment required for a gaming cafe.
Cyber café has been in India since the start of the 2000s and has been a successful venture for many people. Since the widespread emergence of the Mobile internet the business of the traditional cyber cafe has gone down steeply but along with it came the trends of gaming in India. Instead of developing a cybercafe, many people have started to modify their existing cafe as a gaming cafe.
What is a LAN Cafe Or Cyber Cafe?
A LAN Café is a place that is used for both casual internet and gaming service. These cafes usually include a play area, cafeteria, and rest space for users.
The Old Cybercafe usually is targeted towards normal folks who use such a service to browse or take printouts. Gaming cafes are high-speed internet cafe which mainly caters to the need of gamers and its services.
Different Types of LAN Cafe
The LAN café can be categorized into different types depending upon the devices and the type of audience it wants to target.
- PC LAN café: They are the normal café which is found throughout India and the world. They contain a large number of high-configuration desktops that can be used for both casual and competitive gameplay according to the user requirements.
- Mobile LAN café: These types of cafes are quite famous in India and other countries where mobile gaming is quite famous. competitive gamers often can’t afford high-end mobile phones which cost around 1000-2000$ so they often visit such café. They mainly cater towards Mobile players and Mobile Streaming.
- Console Gaming café: They are mainly casual gamers who want to have a good time with their friends playing normal co-op heavy games on consoles like PlayStation, Xbox, or Wii. Console gaming cafe can also include facilities for AR or VR provision.
Investments Required for LAN Cafes Business
Investment for a LAN café can entirely depend upon the proprietor or the owner on how much he/she wants to invest in the business. something around $10000 to $20000 would be sufficient to start a very good gaming cafe in 2024. The main financial elements for a gaming cafe are of the following.
- PC Requirements: A gaming café should at least contain 10 Pc with a good configuration that can run all the latest games at 144FPS at minimum. Building such a PC would at least cost around 1000$ for each including the Monitor and key peripherals.
- Internet Connection: Internet connection can be quite expensive when you are building a gaming cafe. Internet for gaming is entirely different logistics when compared with normal internet for browsing. Internet should be extremely fast with speed up to 100Mbps without any Lag and Ping issues.
- Peripherals: In gaming Investing in proper peripherals like a good Mouse, Mouse mat, keyboard, and Audio headset are very important. as good and expensive accessories definitely bring an edge in competitive gaming.
- Furniture: The Entire gaming café should be properly furnished and even childproofed sometimes when younger children are allowed to play. Good gaming chairs and adjustable tables must be provided which should aid in gaming for long hours.
- Air Conditioning: In countries like India where the temperature tends to be a little humid, players cannot game for a long period if proper ventilation support is not given.
- Cafeteria: The owners of a gaming cafe in 2024 should definitely invest in building a good cafeteria that provides minimum food amenities like water, juice, and snacks like samosa, Maggi, etc. A long session of gaming often leads to hunger and a cafeteria can tend to it.
How to Make a LAN Cafe Business Profitable?
Running a successful business is a very difficult trait to acquire for any entrepreneur. To make a LAN café profitable we must keep in mind the following points.
1.Locality – The locality is the main and the foremost reason for the success or decline of a particular business. A LAN cafe is mainly targeted towards young kids and youths so it should be definitely near a school, college, or any coaching class. while choosing the locality people also must take care of rent, returns and noise pollution.
2.Loyal Customers – Building a loyal and good customer relationship is the base of a successful business. You should always listen to your customer’s queries and they provide proper feedback which will help in improving your business. You can provide Membership offers for regular customers.
3.Pricing– The pricing of your service should be as low as possible but at the same time you should be racking in profits. Calculate all your expenses from rent to electricity bills and try to figure out a fee while keeping the quality of service you are providing.
4. High-Quality Service – Players or users will always come to you if you provide high-quality service for gamers in every term. It can be a good configuration PC, lag-free internet or even the ambience of your place.
Conclusion: Business of LAN Cafes in India
Running a business in any era is very difficult and it applies to 2024 too. Esports gaming is booming in India with each passing days more and more kids are spending their time getting better at their favourite title.
The gaming industry is set to hit the 100 Billion dollars mark in the next 2 years and India is going to be a huge chunk in that market.
SportingFree concludes that starting a mobile café catered towards the Indian mobile audience would be ideal and can be profitable in 6 to 8 months.
Wishing you a happy endeavour in your venture.