移動互聯影響世界 餘波衝擊中國網咖業

Cyber cafés were once a social hub for China’s twenty somethings – and, for authorities, a convenient way to monitor what Chinese citizens were doing online. But as usage of smartphones and tablet devices expands, internet cafés are becoming the collateral damage in the battle to get the country online.

網咖一度是中國二十幾歲年輕人的社交中心。而對於中國政府來說，網咖還是監控中國公民網上所作所為的方便途徑。但隨著智慧手機和平板裝置的使用不斷普及，網咖正成為網民爭奪戰的間接犧牲品。

“Several years ago, we were able to get tens of thousands of [renminbi] a day, but now we are only able to earn several thousand,” says Mr Liu, who runs an airy café with around 30 computers in Beijing’s central Chaoyangmen district of offices and shopping malls.

劉先生（他拒絕透露全名）在北京市中心的朝陽門商圈經營著一家網咖，該網咖通風良好，配置了大約30臺電腦。劉先生說：“幾年前我們一天的收入能有幾萬元（人民幣），但如今每天只能賺到幾千塊錢。”

The spread of cheap smartphones and tablets in China has reached the point that Mr Liu – who refused to give his first name – and many other internet café owners say they worry they are increasingly irrelevant to most Chinese, much like video rental shops have become in the US and Europe.

中國廉價智慧手機和平板電腦的普及，已令劉先生等網咖老闆開始深感憂慮，他們擔心對於多數中國人來說，網咖日益變得無關緊要，就像錄影帶出租店在歐美的遭遇一樣。

Research by Tencent, the Chinese social networking and gaming company, found that the number of internet cafés in China fell between 2011 and 2012 after rising consistently since 2004. Around 10,000 closed their doors for good last year, leaving the nation with 136,000 licensed cafés. Data for 2013 are not yet available.

根據中國社交網路及遊戲企業騰訊(Tencent)的研究，中國網咖的數量在2011年到2012年間有所減少，此前自2004年以來網咖數量始終在上升。去年，中國有大約1萬家網咖關門大吉，剩餘的註冊網咖數目為13.6萬家。目前，2013年的相關資料還未公佈。

That decline comes as the percentage of Chinese with smartphones has more than doubled from 20 per cent in 2012 to nearly half this year, according to data from market researcher Canalys. Home broadband use has also risen, to 191m last year, a threefold rise from five years prior, according to research by CLSA, the brokerage.

根據市場研究機構Canalys的資料，伴隨這一趨勢而來的是，今年中國智慧手機人群所佔比例較2012年的20%提高一倍以上，到達到將近一半的水平。而根據經紀公司里昂證券(CLSA)的研究，去年中國家庭寬頻使用者也增長到了1.91億，是此前五年的三倍。

While bad news for owners, it is a welcome development for users as authorities have frequently used cafés as a way to monitor online behaviour.

儘管這對網咖老闆是個壞訊息，網際網路使用者卻十分歡迎這一變化，因為網咖被中國官方頻繁地用做監控網路活動的途徑。

Activist groups point out that cafés are required to check and log users’ state identification, and police have been known to pressure some cafés to log the sites users visit or install surveillance cameras.

有社會運動團體指出，網咖需要檢查和登記使用者的身份證件號碼，而眾所周知警方還向部分網咖施加壓力，迫使它們記錄使用者訪問的站點或安裝監控攝像頭。

“The authorities have used surveillance mechanisms in . . . internet applications on phones, but the sheer amount of information and the fact that it’s quite new makes it difficult to implement systems that are as effective,” says Maya Wang, a researcher in Human Rights Watch’s Asia division. “There is this infrastructure invested in surveilling these internet cafés.”

人權觀察(Human Rights Watch)亞洲分部研究員阿蓮(Maya Wang)表示：“當局在手機的網際網路應用程式中植入了監控機制，但巨大的資訊量以及智慧手機剛出現不久的事實，使得在手機上實現同樣有效的監控系統十分困難。而對於這些網咖，官方則已投資建設過此類基礎設施。”

The decline of the cafés, however, has more to do with changing technology than with the fact that dissidents avoid them.

不過，比起異見人士不去網咖上網的因素，網咖的衰落與技術變革的關係更大。

Those who still use cafés are those too poor to own a phone or are looking for company as they play the online multiplayer games that are massively popular, particularly with young men.

仍在使用網咖的有兩類人，一類是窮得買不起手機的人，另一類是想尋找同伴一起玩網路遊戲的人，這種遊戲極受歡迎——尤其是受到年輕人的歡迎。

It was a year ago, says a long-time staff member at a café near the centre of the city of Wenzhou, that business started to go downhill for them and the other cafés in their district. The only ones in the city still doing well are those in industrial areas, frequented by poorer migrant factory workers.

一位長期在溫州市中心附近一家網咖工作的員工表示，他們網咖和同區其他網咖的生意一年前開始走下坡路。該市生意依然不錯的網咖全部位於工業區，那些網咖的常客是相對更貧窮的外來務工人員。

While availability of smartphones cheaper than $100 has put the handsets within reach of more people, not all those phones are on fast 3G connections. CLSA estimates that while 3G use nearly doubled between 2011 and 2012, it still stands at only 233m users in a nation of 1.3bn.

市場上出現價格低於100美元的智慧手機之後，更多人能夠買得起手機了，然而這些手機並不是全都能連上高速3G網路。里昂證券估計，儘管2011年到2012年間中國3G使用者將近翻了一番，在這個13億人的國度中，3G使用者人數仍然只有2.33億。

But while cafés are monitored particularly closely, the Wenzhou worker says he has his doubts that users of mobile internet will be that much freer.

不過，前述溫州網咖員工表示，儘管在網咖會受到非常密切的監控，但他懷疑移動網際網路使用者是否會有大得多的自由度。

“The government’s control on using internet is very strict,” he says.

他說：“政府對使用網際網路的控制是非常嚴格的。”