Cyber Cafe Success Story : Sify

Cybercafe's in this of Mumbai suck with their pathetic cramped up spaces and mediocre connectivity, it has become something like PAN shop or STD/ISO booths. In Good Old Dotcom days Good or 'branded' cybercafes started in posh areas where today Pizza Hut and Barista's exists. Somehow people didn't realize that , in posh areas it was just matter of time & awareness and they would be the first ones to have Internet connectivity at home through Dial-Up or Cable. The actual need of the cybercafes is near School, Colleges, Hospitals, Railway Stations, Markets and densely populated commercial areas or resedential complexes.

Companies like Dishnet DSL started their Cybercafes with a big bang and closed with the equal force. They were following the ownership model and now others have realized from such examples that it would be better idea to have a partnership or franchisee model. Sify seems to be following both. I am only aware of Mumbai and the two visible in this space are Tata & Satyam, Satyam's Sify iWay being more visible.

According to the latest press release by Sify it has Sify has opened its 2,000th iWay Cyber Cafe in New Delhi coinciding the 60th birth anniversary of the late Prime Minister Shri Rajiv Gandhi whose vision ushered in the era of Information Technology and IT services in India. Of the 2,000 iWays 34 are owned by Sify and 1966 are owned and managed by franchisees.