First cafe operator pulls out

Sparkice, Beijing's first internet cafe operator, has closed its last internet cafe, South China Morning Post said. The cafe, in Beijing's World Trade Centre, had around 200 customers a day before the government ordered the closure of all internet cafes for safety checks in June. Permission had since been given for the cafe to re-open but as the company was only receiving between 10 and 20 enquiries a day from potential customers, decided to close it down. At its height, Sparkice had 20 cafes in Beijing, but the company had already started to reduce the number before the closure order, to concentrate on e-commerce. About 10 per cent of Sparkice's revenue came from the cafes, down from 80 per cent in the late 1990s.