Reaching Out to More People

through the Icafes

Gener Luis Morada
President, Internet Cafe Association of Imus, Inc
Country Representative, G.ho.st Virtual Computer

31 March – 03 April 2009, Matabungkay Beach Resort & Hotel, Lian, Batangas
 Introduction

• Gener Luis Morada

• President of the Internet Cafe
Association of Imus, Inc
• Country Representative – G.ho.st Virtual
Computer of Israel
• Member, Unified Lanshop Owners of the
Philippines (ULOP.net)
• Member of the Computers Professional
Union
• Open Source Advocate.
 First Encounter with Eskwela
• Learned about the program from Mr.
Garrie David and Mr John Macasio
• After a series of email I was able to get
in touch with Mam Mel Tan and had a
meeting with her at the Cavite State
University Indang Campus
• And the first question was “Why deploy
Eskwela in the Internet Cafes?
Reasons why to deploy Eskwela in Icafes

1. We have the Technology –

internet cafes have the best IT
technology possible.

•The CPUs and software are

usually updated to cope with the
industry standards.

On the average icafes must

change their computer systems
every two years to keep up with
the latest developments in the
internet and gaming industry
• We have a well maintained system to fit into our
operations.

One can set up an Icafe with 15 computer units plus

peripherals at only Php300,000.00 but it is the cost of
maintenance and utilities that is much more expensive.
Icafes usually operate 24/7

• Icafes are usually owned by people with an IT

background and are usually updated with the latest
innovations in information technology.

Icafe owners are encourage to learn the ways of maintaining

their computer units to cut down on cost.
2. Icafes have the reach and the customers.

• On the average there are 300 or more internet cafes in

every municipality or city around the country or about
two in every barangay.
• An average internet cafe will have on the average about
ten computer units
• Basically there are about 3000 units that are available
at any given time.
• Peak operating hours is between 3:00 pm to 8:00 pm
on weekdays and from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm on
weekends.
• Basically icafes are operating at about 60% of their
given capacity at any given time.
 Yahoo/Nielsen Internet Usage Survey

• More and more Filipinos from the

lower income sectors in urban
Philippines are using the Internet as
cheaper broadband and lower-priced
computers drive down costs of
accessing the Web
• showed that 85 percent of all online
users from total urban Philippines are
from the Class D and E socioeconomic
class while the rest are from Class
ABC.
• Internet cafes have become an important access point
for Filipino Internet users with 71 percent of the
country’s estimated 20 million Internet population
saying they have accessed the Internet through e-cafes
in the past three months
• “Internet cafes have become the great equalizer for all
social classes in accessing the Internet. Forty-seven
percent of all Internet time by Filipino Internet users are
spent in Internet cafes. It’s the only medium that allows
you to communicate and do research and even
entertains you for 10 to 15 pesos an hour
• Eighty-one percent of Internet users from Class CDE
said they are regular Internet café users compared to
21 percent from Class ABC1 and 27 percent from Class
C2.
• The survey also revealed that the younger generation have
become early adopters of the Internet. At least 49 percent of
Internet users in the Philippines are ages 10-19 while 32
percent are ages 20-29.

• Breakdown of users Past Month Internet

Access

• 10-19 years 50 percent

• 20-29 years 41 percent
• 30-39 19 percent
• 40-49 12 percent
• 50+ 3 percent
3. We have the Organization and the Network

Internet Cafe
Organizations

5
Educational Institutions

Local and Foreign

Companies
Government Agencies

NGOs
4. We are so Affordable

• Php20.00 per hour multiplied by the number of

required hours of 300 so each learner would only
cost P6000.00 to complete the course.
• In some cases internet cafes could be charging
Php15.00 per hour thus reducing cost to
Php4,500.00
• This is as opposed to investing in a learning center
which would entail an initial investment of
Php300,000.00 and an expense of an average of
around Php85,000 per month not including the cost
of maintenance and computer upgrades.
 Problem Encountered

• Project Sustainability

• Internet cafes are business oriented

enterprises that needs financing to
recover investments and cost.
• The present Eskwela model does not
allow the Icafes to charge the learners
to cover the cost of their use of the
computer system.
• Outside Financing coming from
donations from politicians and other
socio civic organizations.
• Primary concern was the use of the
Eskwela as a political tool by the
politicians. Sustainability is depended
on the term of office of the elected
officials.
• There were some reluctance on the
part os some some socio civic
organizations to tie up with the icafes
due to the impression of the icafes as
a social hazard.
 Icafe Business Model for Eskwela

• Project sustainability is depended on

the capacity to support the computer
network established
• According to the Yahoo and Nielsen
survey even those belonging to the
lower economic bracket are using the
internet cafes to access the internet
• Thus it would show that they have the
capacity to pay for the computer
access.
• Not all learners does not have the
capacity to pay but there are
learners who are paying private
educational institutions just to
finish their primary education.
• The Eskwela would follow the
Online gaming model in which
the module itself would be free
and what the learners would be
paying for is the use of the
computer network not for the use
of the modules.
• This would ensure that support
• Another option is to get Eskwela on
line and let advertising pay for its
sustainability by informing participants
to click on the advertising that comes
out of the web pages.
• By uploading the Eskwela module in
professional data centers in the
internet cloud then proponents could
concentrate more on the content
rather than on the hardware
components of the program.
 End of Presentation

email address: gener62166@g.ho.st

icaii.gener@gmail.com
URL:http://g.ho.st