Young entrepreneurs plug Malaysian teenagers into the Internet

[". . ." <dcslec@visto.com>]

Surfers' Paradise

Young entrepreneurs plug Malaysian teenagers into the Internet

BY ALEX YONG

The idea of opening an Internet café in a tiny Malaysian rubber-plantation town 
did not immediately appeal to Kuala Lumpur recording-studio engineer Jason 
Thomas. Who'd want to surf the Internet in a two-street community surrounded by 
thousands of hectares of rubber trees, where the liveliest place was the post 
office?

The answer, as Thomas, 23, and partner Ganeson Mahalingam quickly found out, is 
hordes of bored teenagers.

Thomas and Mahalingam took a gamble in June and moved to Palong, 180 kilometers 
southeast of Kuala Lumpur, with a joint $4,000 investment. Today more than 100 
youngsters a day use the 11 computer terminals in their one-story shop, and 
they need to add 10 more PCs to cope. Later this month, the entrepreneurial 
pair aim to open two more cybercafés in the area.

In Nilai, a small town 50 kilometers from Kuala Lumpur, 7,000 students from two 
colleges add to growing pressure from teenagers on five Internet cafés that 
have sprouted there within the past year.

It's a similar story in the urban growth centers around Kuala Lumpur. Alex Tien 
and three friends opened CyberZone in the upmarket suburb of Subang Jaya in 
1996. They recouped their $26,000 investment within a year.

Now there are 15 cybercafés in Subang Jaya. The new competition has forced 
hourly fees for computer use down to RM2 (53 cents), one-fifth of what 
CyberZone charged three years ago.

J.S. Pung and his partners poured $92,000 into their Net café, Sky Surf, and 
didn't break even for 18 months. Sky Surf has 50 PCs, "but I don't think we can 
make a profit much longer," laments Pung. "This year alone, seven more opened 
shop here. We used to have about 200 customers daily, but now there are only 
about 100."

CyberZone, on the other hand, stays open 20 hours a day to meet demand for its 
25 PCs. "We have no choice sometimes but to tell customers to go to our 
competitors," says Tien.

Sky Surf's Pung has this advice for would-be cybercafé owners: "Pick a good 
location and don't dump in too much money at first. Ask existing operators if 
they're willing to sell, because it's cheaper to take over than to start from 
scratch."

Many youngsters head straight to the café after school and spend hours at the 
computer screen -- prompting parents to ponder what their offspring are up to. 
The answer, folks, is Internet "chat rooms" and information-gathering on pop 
stars and film idols.

Says Subang Jaya high-school student Khairena Kamil: "Apart from chatting 
online, I can also buy compact discs that aren't available locally." She says 
her father occasionally allows her to use his credit-card number to order 
clothes from cyber-malls.

Back in Palong, parental concerns about the cybercafé weren't helped when a 
rubber tapper accused Thomas and Mahalingam of corrupting his 12-year-old son. 
The boy was caught trying to sell a chicken he had stolen from a farm to raise 
the cash he needed for Internet surfing.

But Suhaini Zulfakar, 17, asserts that Internet access "has brought us on a par 
with folks in the city. Older people don't realize the importance, but trust 
me, it's very important." 


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