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Entertainment, communication or academic use? A survey of Internet cafe users in Lahore, Pakistan Syeda Hina Batool and Khalid Mahmood Information Development 2010; 26; 141 DOI: 10.1177/0266666910366650 The online version of this article can be found at: http://idv.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/26/2/141
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Article
Entertainment, communication or academic use? A survey of Internet cafe users in Lahore, Pakistan
Information Development 26(2) 141–147 ª The Author(s) 2010 Reprints and permission: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0266666910366650 idv.sagepub.com
Syeda Hina Batool and Khalid Mahmood University of the Punjab
Abstracts Internet cafes are the most popular public access Internet points in Pakistan. People go there to fulfill their entertainment, communication and academic needs. This study is an attempt to highlight the characteristics of Internet cafe users in the Pakistani context. A total of 242 users at 49 Internet cafes in the city of Lahore were selected through the snowball sampling method and asked to complete a questionnaire covering: profile of Internet cafe users on various demographic variables; frequency of use of Internet cafes; users’ preferences to choose Internet cafes; purposes for which people use Internet cafes; and problems of cafe users. Users’ profiles show that the cafes were mainly occupied by male users. Students were the most regular users who came mostly for entertainment, chat and email facilities. The respondents mentioned problems of low service quality, poor environment and lack of privacy at Internet cafes. Keywords Internet cafes, cyber cafe, Internet use, Internet cafe users, Pakistan
Internet cafes in Lahore are used mainly for entertainment, email and chat. Few users use the Internet for academic and research activities.
Background The use of the Internet has become indispensable as we are transforming into an information society. It provides us with feasible and efficient solutions to our problems. It is a huge world which is accessible to us just on one click. It diminishes our geographic, historic, economic, and political distances. There were 1.73 billion Internet users in the world in September 2009 (25.6 percent of the total population). In Pakistan, the number of Internet users was estimated to be 18.5 million (10.6 percent penetration), out of a population of more than 175 millions (Internet World Stats, 2010). There are around 3.5 million Internet connections (2.2 percent penetration), mostly dialup, with only about 0.1 million broadband users (one of the lowest in the world, 143rd in global ranking). There are about 5 million personal computers in the country (above 3 percent penetration) and some 80 million telephone users (50 percent teledensity), including 4.7 million fixed lines, 2.0 million WLL (Wireless Local Loop) and 74.6 million mobile cellular customers. (Ministry
of Information Technology, n.d.). Although over 13,500 users have registered under the ‘.pk’ domain, this is quite disappointing in relation to the potential strength of the Internet in the country (Kenneth, 2008). The telecommunication infrastructure thus has serious gaps in the provision of Internet, computer, telephone lines, mobile and mobile Internet connections. To overcome these problems the government established the Ministry of Information Technology to improve the IT infrastructure. The government has included a compulsory, up-to-date computer literacy module in the high school curriculum and has launched a plan for providing low priced computers and Internet connectivity to universities, colleges and
Corresponding author: Dr Khalid Mahmood, Professor of Library and Information Science, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. Tel. and fax: þ92 42 99231224. Email: [email protected]
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schools through a joint public–private sector initiative (Shafique and Mahmood, 2009). All cities and towns in Pakistan are connected to the Internet; computer prices are now within public range and many people use the Internet at their offices, educational institutions, homes, etc. DSL, cable and wireless services are emerging, but dialup connections are still popular, even though dialup access is costly and slow and many companies are offering cheaper Internet rates to convert dialup users to broadband (Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, 2009). Nevertheless, public access to the Internet is mainly provided by Internet cafes, which offer cheaper Internet access rates as compared to surfing at home. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (2003) provided the following legal definition: ‘‘Cyber cafe means and includes cyber cafe/ Internet club/ Internet parlor, or a place or premises where Internet access is provided on local area network or dialup or leased line connectivity from any Internet service provider.’’ In 2006 there were 5,500 registered Internet cafes operating in Pakistan (E-Commerce Resource Centre, 2006), and these cafes – which are mainly located in urban areas – are playing a positive role in promoting the information society. On the other hand, negative use of the Internet is also very common in the cafes. A lot of them are not registered with the government and are thus operating illegally. Many use many basement shops for this purpose; many cafes are decorated like departmental stores in outside, but computers and cabins are hidden inside. A consultancy paper on cyber cafe regularization was prepared by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority in 2003 to ensure that premises shall not be used for crime, violence, black market, smuggling, bribery, corruption, computer hacking or any other social evil like pornography (Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, 2003). The President of Pakistan has issued the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Ordinance (2009), which requires service providers to maintain records of customers, complete with identity, address and telephone number. Crimes like cyber terrorism, electronic fraud, cyber stalking, spamming, spoofing, hacking of websites and criminal access to secure data, etc. will be addressed by maximum punishment of death or life imprisonment for those involved.
Literature review Several studies have been conducted to explore the profile of Internet users and the use of Internet cafes
in different parts of the world. In China, Internet cafes are the source of computer training and public access to the Internet, especially for people with low incomes, and are playing a major role in building the information society, although they are not evenly distributed across the country. There were 133,163 registered Internet cafes in China in 2007 (People’s Republic of China. Ministry of Culture, 2008). People mainly surf the Internet for entertainment, i.e. chatting, games, etc. (Hong and Huang, 2005). In Turkey, Internet cafes are encouraged to connect people from low socio-economic backgrounds with the Internet. However, the misuse of Internet cafes also led the government to divide cafes into those with a games license and those without. A survey of 26 Internet cafes showed that 77.7 percent of users were between the ages of 15 and 24, of whom 39.3 percent visited game websites, 48.5 percent used the Internet for chat and 43.2 percent viewed websites with educational content (Gurol and Servindik, 2006). In the Arab world, of 300 million Arabs there are only 23.3 million Internet users, most of whom rely on Internet cafes due to high internet access fees. Jordan made the Guinness Book of World Records for having the largest concentration of Internet cafes anywhere. Here users spend 12 hours per week online, often in chat rooms (Warf and Vincent, 2007). Furuholt, Kristiansen and Wahid (2008) compared the Internet usage of Indonesians and Tanzanians at cyber cafes. It was observed that cyber cafes were very popular in these countries. Males were dominant users at the cafes. Favorite activities were email, information seeking and chatting. There are innumerable cyber cafes in India, mostly in small urban areas. A questionnaire survey of 318 users in 21 cyber cafes was conducted by Singh and Krishnatray (2003) in Bhopal, a Central Indian city. The study revealed that a significant reason for using Internet cafes was the low cost. Most of the Internet users’ daily activities were emailing, gaming and chatting; fewer users were interested in job hunting, seeking admission details for colleges, universities etc. In Pakistan, studies about Internet cafes are mostly published in daily newspapers, government reports and websites. Very few research studies have been conducted on the use of Internet cafes in the country. One study reported limited use of the Internet among educated Pakistani adults. Some cyber cafe owners were also interviewed. They were of the view that many people preferred to use Internet cafes for
Downloaded from http://idv.sagepub.com at UCLA on May 28, 2010
Batool and Mahmood: Entertainment, communication or academic use?
various educational and other purposes, due to high speed and reliable connectivity. However, among 28 reported reasons for Internet non-use, the first in rank was the respondents’ dissatisfaction with the cyber cafes. Eighty-three percent of female respondents did not find the cyber cafes’ environment conducive for their use (Shafique and Mahmood, 2009). In another study, female users were reported to feel deprived of a favorable environment in Internet cafes. They complained of people watching unethical websites, movies, playing songs and smoking at these places. Calling such technological disparities between women and men a ‘‘gender digital divide,’’ experts said that there was a need to come up with innovative ideas and gender specific policies to narrow the gap between men and women in this respect (‘Girls deprived . . . ,’ 2008).
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Table 1. Internet cafe users in Lahore, by age group Age (years)
Frequency
Percentage
15 or younger 16–22 23–29 30–39 40–49 50 or over Missing Total
31 130 56 14 5 3 3 242
12.8 53.7 23.1 5.8 2.1 1.2 1.2 100.0
in all questions. Respondents were asked why they preferred to use Internet cafes and to indicate on a list of 22 activities performed at these cafes those that were most relevant to them. The respondents were also asked to indicate any problems they faced in using the cafes. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 16.0.
Objectives and methods The objectives of this study were to find out the:
profile of Internet cafe users on various demographic variables; frequency of use of Internet cafes; users’ preferences to choose Internet cafes; purposes for which people use Internet cafes; and problems of cafe users.
This descriptive research was based on a questionnaire survey. The study sample consisted of 242 users from 49 Internet cafes in Lahore (the second largest city of Pakistan with a population of 10 million). As there was no list of Internet cafes in the city, the cafes were selected by using snowball sampling method, referred by cafe owners and users. Very few Internet cafes were identified in low socio-economic areas, so the study covered a range of high to middle socioeconomic areas. Users of the Internet cafes were approached from noon till late evening in order to consider the rush hours. In the light of the literature review a preliminary questionnaire was prepared and distributed among the users of two Internet cafes for pre-testing. It was modified and translated into Urdu as suggested during pre-testing. The questionnaire was administered by the researchers. All users present during the visits to the cafes were requested to complete the questionnaire. A total of 242 respondents were targeted. The data collection instrument consisted of demographic and multiple choice questions with an option of ‘other’
Results and discussion Demographic profile of participants Table 1 shows that the biggest group of users were people between the ages of 16 and 22 (53.7 percent). Although the legal minimum age for using Internet cafes in Pakistan is 15 years, some users below 15 years of age (12.8 percent) were observed surfing the Internet, playing games and chatting online in the cafes. Table 2 shows that the great majority (91.7 percent) of cafe users were male. The fact that only 8.3 percent of respondents were female confirms the findings of similar studies in other countries, that male users are predominant in Internet cafes. Table 3 shows the education level of the Internet cafe users. Most of them (57.9 percent) had university level education, but it is interesting to note that 55 respondents (22.7 percent) had attended high school and 33 respondents (13.6 percent) had only elementary level education. Table 4 shows that most of the Internet cafe users were students (36.8 percent). The others included information technology/computer professionals, businessmen, engineers, doctors, salesmen, unemployed, teachers, bankers/accountants, lawyers, journalists, public servants, managers and researchers. Respondents other than students and the unemployed were asked to indicate their monthly incomes. According to the Economic Survey of Pakistan
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Information Development 26(2)
Table 2. Internet cafe users in Lahore, by gender Gender
Frequency
Percentage
Male Female Total
222 20 242
91.7 8.3 100.0
Table 3. Internet cafe users in Lahore, by educational level Education Elementary (up to 13 years of age) High school (up to 18 years of age) University (above 18 years of age) Missing Total
Frequency
Percentage
33
13.6
55
22.7
140
57.9
14 242
5.8 100.0
Table 5. Internet cafe users in Lahore, by monthly income group (excluding students [89 cases] and the unemployed [7 cases]) Monthly income (PKR) Below 5,000 5,000–10,000 11,000–15,000 16,000–20,000 21,000–25,000 26,000–30,000 Above 30,000 Missing Total (excluding students and unemployed)
Frequency
Percentage
25 49 18 23 5 5 4 17 146
17.1 33.6 12.3 15.8 3.4 3.4 2.7 11.6 100.0
the importance of the Internet cafes as means of access to the Internet for the poorer members of the community.
Table 4. Internet cafe users in Lahore, by occupation Occupation
Frequency
Percentage
Student IT/computer professional Businessman Engineer Doctor Salesman Unemployed Teacher Banker/accountant Lawyer Journalist Public servant Manager Researcher Others Missing Total
89 19 17 16 14 10 7 6 5 4 4 3 3 2 41 2 242
36.8 7.9 7.0 6.6 5.8 4.1 2.9 2.5 2.1 1.7 1.7 1.2 1.2 0.8 16.9 0.8 100.0
2008–2009, the average per capita income in Pakistan is PKR 7,417 per month (Ministry of Finance, 2009). This figure falls about midway in the PKR 5,000– 10,000 income group shown in Table 5, suggesting that perhaps as many as half the users in that group (say, 25 cases) have incomes below the national average. Taken together with the 25 users reporting incomes below PKR 5,000 per month, this suggests that perhaps 50 respondents (34.2 percent) had incomes below the national average, thus confirming
Use of Internet access points Although having a computer at home is now economical for middle class citizens in Pakistan and, as indicated above, many people use the Internet at their offices, educational institutions, homes, etc., Table 6 shows that, for the great majority of respondents to this survey (79.3 percent), the Internet cafe is the access point they use most.
Frequency of use of Internet cafes Table 7 shows that a majority of the respondents were regular visitors to the Internet cafes, with nearly 80 percent visiting a cafe at least once a week and less than 8 percent visiting only once a month or less frequently.
Reasons for using Internet cafes The users in this study were asked to indicate why they preferred to use the Internet at these cafes (Table 8). They were allowed to indicate more than one preference. The results revealed that 59.5 percent felt it convenient to use cafes in terms of their location, 33.9 percent appreciated the high speed of Internet available at the cafes, while 14.0 percent visited cafes because of the availability of printing facilities. Interestingly in view of the data on average monthly income shown in Table 5, only 8.7 percent used the cafes because they were offering cheaper Internet surfing rates than other access points. It would thus
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Batool and Mahmood: Entertainment, communication or academic use?
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Table 6. Internet cafe users in Lahore; most used Internet access points
Table 8. Internet cafe users in Lahore; reasons for using Internet cafes
Access points
Frequency
Percentage
Rank
Preferences
Percentage
Internet cafe Home Office School/college/university Other Missing Total
192 26 14 2 4 4 242
79.3 10.7 5.8 0.8 1.7 1.7 100.0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Convenient location High speed access Availability of printers Assistance to users Reliability of power supply Cheaper than other sources Security
59.5 33.9 14.0 11.2 10.7 8.7 5.0
Table 7. Internet cafe users in Lahore; frequency of use of Internet cafes
Table 9. Internet cafe users in Lahore; purposes for using Internet cafes
Use
Frequency
Percentage
Rank
Activities
Percentage
Almost every day 3–4 days a week 1–2 days a week Twice to thrice a month Once a month or less Missing Total
76 71 44 28 19 4 242
31.4 29.3 18.2 11.6 7.9 1.7 100.0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 10 12 13 13 15 16 17
Entertainment (music/games) Read/send email Chat Browsing/surfing Sports/television Search for job Academic research Read news groups To supplement coursework Downloading software To learn Internet skills To visit recommended sites Browse for scholarship Political purposes Browse on behalf of others Upcoming and on-going events College admission and sponsor search Health purposes Shopping and transaction Web design/registration Distance learning To engage in discussion groups
56.6 39.7 39.3 21.5 19.4 15.3 13.6 13.2 12.0 10.7 10.7 8.7 6.6 6.6 6.2 5.8 5.4
appear that, even among the substantial proportion of users with incomes below the national average, other factors were more important than cost in their decisions to use the Internet cafes.
Purposes for using Internet cafes Based on the literature review, a list of 22 activities that could be carried out through the Internet was provided to the respondents, who were asked to indicate the activities they themselves mainly engaged in when using the Internet cafes. They were allowed to indicate multiple activities. The results are presented in Table 9. The results confirm those of previous studies (e.g. Singh and Krishnatray, 2003; Gurol and Servindik, 2006; Furuholt, Kristiansen and Wahid, 2008) that Internet cafes in different countries are mostly used for entertainment, email and chat. Although a large number of the participants in this study were students, they rarely used the Internet for academic purposes such as research, college admission, scholarships, reading news groups and seeking help for course assignments.
Problems experienced at Internet cafes Public access places should be designed to meet their users’ needs and demands. Respondents were allowed
17 19 20 20 22
5.4 4.5 3.7 3.7 2.5
to indicate any problems they faced at these cafes (multiple responses were allowed). More than half the respondents (54.1 percent) complained about lack of privacy and disturbance from other users and 47.5 percent about poor quality of service. Despite the fact that, as shown in Table 8, ‘convenient location’ was cited by nearly 60 percent of respondents as their the main reason for using Internet cafes, 43.0 percent complained about the poor location of the cafes in the city. Similar discrepancies between the two sets of results were noted in respect of reliability of power supply, speed of Internet access, charges for Internet
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Information Development 26(2)
Table 10. Internet cafe users in Lahore; problems experienced at Internet cafes
technology. Special orientation programs for students could be helpful to improve the situation.
Rank
Problems
Percentage
References
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
No privacy/disturbance Lack of quality services Poor location Poor environment Electricity failure Poor Internet speed Costly internet rates No data security Outdated equipment Not compatible timings Lack of printing/scanning etc. facilities Damaged equipment
54.1 47.5 43.0 33.5 23.5 21.4 19.8 19.4 15.7 14.4 11.1
E-Commerce Resource Centre. (2006) Country progress report – Pakistan. (2006). Retrieved from http://www. afact.org/doctemp/00003/ afact_353420060706174812.pdf Furuholt, B., Kristiansen, S., and Wahid, F. (2008) Comparing the use of Internet cafes in Indonesia and Tanzania. International Information and Library Review, 40, 129–139. ‘Girls deprived of quality net cafes in Pakistan.’ (2008, December 15) Retrieved from http://www.thaindian. com/newsportal/world-news/girls-deprived-of-quality-netcafes-in-pakistan_100131236.html Gurol, M., and Sevindik, T. (2006) Profile of Internet cafe users in Turkey. Telematics and Informatics, 24, 59–68. Hong, J., and Huang, L. (2005) A split and swaying approach to building information society: The case of Internet cafes in China. Telematics and Informatics, 22, 377–393. Internet World Stats. (2010) Usage and population statistics. Retrieved from http://www.Internetworldstats.com Kenneth, R. (2008, January 20) Only 2.12 percent people use Internet in Pakistan. Daily Pakistan. Ministry of Finance (2009) Economic survey of Pakistan 2008–09. Islamabad: Ministry of Finance. Ministry of Information Technology (n.d.) Broadband penetration in Pakistan: Current scenario and future prospects. Retrieved from http://www.ispak.com.pk/ downloads/MoITstudyon/broadbandpenetration.pdf Pakistan Telecommunication Authority. (2003) Consultation paper on cyber cafe regulations. Retrieved from www.pakcon.org/post-pakcon/pc-khi-04-jawad-electronic-commerceand-cyber-crime.pdf Pakistan Telecommunication Authority. (2009) Annual report. Islamabad: PTA. People’s Republic of China. Ministry of Culture. (2008) China culture and cultural product statistical yearbook. Beijing: Library Press. Prevention of Electronic Crimes Ordinance. (2009) Retrieved from http://www.na.gov.pk/ordinances/ ord2009/prevention_electronic_crime_ord2009_210809. pdf Shafique, F., and Mahmood, K. (2009) Why the offline are offline: A survey of Internet use by educated Pakistani adults. CyberPsychology and Behavior, 12(3), 351–354. Singh, P. P., and Krishnatray, P. (2003) Gratifications from Internet use: A survey of cyber cafe users in a Central Indian city. Retrieved from http://www.hicsocial.org/ social2003proceedings/pushpendra percent 20pal percent 20singh.pdf. Warf, B. and Vincent, P. (2007) Multiple geographies of the Arab Internet. Area, 39(1), 83–96.
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10.3
use, availability of printers and security. These may be explained by variations in the levels of service offered by different cafes, with some providing more conducive environments than others.
Conclusion This study found that Internet cafes in Pakistan’s second largest city of Lahore are used primarily by males, mostly of the ages between 16 and 22. People who have completed or continue education at university level, especially students, are in the majority. People who are of middle or low economic status are the regular users of the cafes. Entertainment, email and chat are the favorite activities at these cafes, followed by browsing the Internet, watching television or sports and searching for jobs. Only a few users use the Internet for academic and research activities. The users complained about the improper location, nonconducive environment and poor quality of service in many of the cafes. It is recommended that Internet cafes must be regularized under government laws to provide satisfactory standards of service and improve the environment. The environment should also be made conducive for female users. Internet cafes must be within reach of all urban and rural residents. The users must be educated in order to minimize unethical and illegal use of Internet cafes. Measures should be taken to maintain privacy of the users. The infrequent use of Internet cafes for academic purposes is alarming. One reason for this may be the lack of awareness among students about the academic benefits of this
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Batool and Mahmood: Entertainment, communication or academic use?
About the authors Syeda Hina Batool is a Lecturer in Library and Information Science at the University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. Phone and fax: þ92 42 99231224. Email: hina@ dlis.pu.edu.pk
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Dr. Khalid Mahmood is Professor of Library and Information Science at the University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. Phone and fax: þ92 42 99231224. Email: khalid@ dlis.pu.edu.pk (corresponding author)
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Entertainment, communication or academic use? A survey of Internet cafe users in Lahore, Pakistan Syeda Hina Batool and Khalid Mahmood Information Development 2010; 26; 141 DOI: 10.1177/0266666910366650 The online version of this article can be found at: http://idv.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/26/2/141
Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com
Additional services and information for Information Development can be found at: Email Alerts: http://idv.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://idv.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav Citations http://idv.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/26/2/141
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Article
Entertainment, communication or academic use? A survey of Internet cafe users in Lahore, Pakistan
Information Development 26(2) 141–147 ª The Author(s) 2010 Reprints and permission: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0266666910366650 idv.sagepub.com
Syeda Hina Batool and Khalid Mahmood University of the Punjab
Abstracts Internet cafes are the most popular public access Internet points in Pakistan. People go there to fulfill their entertainment, communication and academic needs. This study is an attempt to highlight the characteristics of Internet cafe users in the Pakistani context. A total of 242 users at 49 Internet cafes in the city of Lahore were selected through the snowball sampling method and asked to complete a questionnaire covering: profile of Internet cafe users on various demographic variables; frequency of use of Internet cafes; users’ preferences to choose Internet cafes; purposes for which people use Internet cafes; and problems of cafe users. Users’ profiles show that the cafes were mainly occupied by male users. Students were the most regular users who came mostly for entertainment, chat and email facilities. The respondents mentioned problems of low service quality, poor environment and lack of privacy at Internet cafes. Keywords Internet cafes, cyber cafe, Internet use, Internet cafe users, Pakistan
Internet cafes in Lahore are used mainly for entertainment, email and chat. Few users use the Internet for academic and research activities.
Background The use of the Internet has become indispensable as we are transforming into an information society. It provides us with feasible and efficient solutions to our problems. It is a huge world which is accessible to us just on one click. It diminishes our geographic, historic, economic, and political distances. There were 1.73 billion Internet users in the world in September 2009 (25.6 percent of the total population). In Pakistan, the number of Internet users was estimated to be 18.5 million (10.6 percent penetration), out of a population of more than 175 millions (Internet World Stats, 2010). There are around 3.5 million Internet connections (2.2 percent penetration), mostly dialup, with only about 0.1 million broadband users (one of the lowest in the world, 143rd in global ranking). There are about 5 million personal computers in the country (above 3 percent penetration) and some 80 million telephone users (50 percent teledensity), including 4.7 million fixed lines, 2.0 million WLL (Wireless Local Loop) and 74.6 million mobile cellular customers. (Ministry
of Information Technology, n.d.). Although over 13,500 users have registered under the ‘.pk’ domain, this is quite disappointing in relation to the potential strength of the Internet in the country (Kenneth, 2008). The telecommunication infrastructure thus has serious gaps in the provision of Internet, computer, telephone lines, mobile and mobile Internet connections. To overcome these problems the government established the Ministry of Information Technology to improve the IT infrastructure. The government has included a compulsory, up-to-date computer literacy module in the high school curriculum and has launched a plan for providing low priced computers and Internet connectivity to universities, colleges and
Corresponding author: Dr Khalid Mahmood, Professor of Library and Information Science, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. Tel. and fax: þ92 42 99231224. Email: [email protected]
Downloaded from http://idv.sagepub.com at UCLA on May 28, 2010
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Information Development 26(2)
schools through a joint public–private sector initiative (Shafique and Mahmood, 2009). All cities and towns in Pakistan are connected to the Internet; computer prices are now within public range and many people use the Internet at their offices, educational institutions, homes, etc. DSL, cable and wireless services are emerging, but dialup connections are still popular, even though dialup access is costly and slow and many companies are offering cheaper Internet rates to convert dialup users to broadband (Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, 2009). Nevertheless, public access to the Internet is mainly provided by Internet cafes, which offer cheaper Internet access rates as compared to surfing at home. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (2003) provided the following legal definition: ‘‘Cyber cafe means and includes cyber cafe/ Internet club/ Internet parlor, or a place or premises where Internet access is provided on local area network or dialup or leased line connectivity from any Internet service provider.’’ In 2006 there were 5,500 registered Internet cafes operating in Pakistan (E-Commerce Resource Centre, 2006), and these cafes – which are mainly located in urban areas – are playing a positive role in promoting the information society. On the other hand, negative use of the Internet is also very common in the cafes. A lot of them are not registered with the government and are thus operating illegally. Many use many basement shops for this purpose; many cafes are decorated like departmental stores in outside, but computers and cabins are hidden inside. A consultancy paper on cyber cafe regularization was prepared by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority in 2003 to ensure that premises shall not be used for crime, violence, black market, smuggling, bribery, corruption, computer hacking or any other social evil like pornography (Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, 2003). The President of Pakistan has issued the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Ordinance (2009), which requires service providers to maintain records of customers, complete with identity, address and telephone number. Crimes like cyber terrorism, electronic fraud, cyber stalking, spamming, spoofing, hacking of websites and criminal access to secure data, etc. will be addressed by maximum punishment of death or life imprisonment for those involved.
Literature review Several studies have been conducted to explore the profile of Internet users and the use of Internet cafes
in different parts of the world. In China, Internet cafes are the source of computer training and public access to the Internet, especially for people with low incomes, and are playing a major role in building the information society, although they are not evenly distributed across the country. There were 133,163 registered Internet cafes in China in 2007 (People’s Republic of China. Ministry of Culture, 2008). People mainly surf the Internet for entertainment, i.e. chatting, games, etc. (Hong and Huang, 2005). In Turkey, Internet cafes are encouraged to connect people from low socio-economic backgrounds with the Internet. However, the misuse of Internet cafes also led the government to divide cafes into those with a games license and those without. A survey of 26 Internet cafes showed that 77.7 percent of users were between the ages of 15 and 24, of whom 39.3 percent visited game websites, 48.5 percent used the Internet for chat and 43.2 percent viewed websites with educational content (Gurol and Servindik, 2006). In the Arab world, of 300 million Arabs there are only 23.3 million Internet users, most of whom rely on Internet cafes due to high internet access fees. Jordan made the Guinness Book of World Records for having the largest concentration of Internet cafes anywhere. Here users spend 12 hours per week online, often in chat rooms (Warf and Vincent, 2007). Furuholt, Kristiansen and Wahid (2008) compared the Internet usage of Indonesians and Tanzanians at cyber cafes. It was observed that cyber cafes were very popular in these countries. Males were dominant users at the cafes. Favorite activities were email, information seeking and chatting. There are innumerable cyber cafes in India, mostly in small urban areas. A questionnaire survey of 318 users in 21 cyber cafes was conducted by Singh and Krishnatray (2003) in Bhopal, a Central Indian city. The study revealed that a significant reason for using Internet cafes was the low cost. Most of the Internet users’ daily activities were emailing, gaming and chatting; fewer users were interested in job hunting, seeking admission details for colleges, universities etc. In Pakistan, studies about Internet cafes are mostly published in daily newspapers, government reports and websites. Very few research studies have been conducted on the use of Internet cafes in the country. One study reported limited use of the Internet among educated Pakistani adults. Some cyber cafe owners were also interviewed. They were of the view that many people preferred to use Internet cafes for
Downloaded from http://idv.sagepub.com at UCLA on May 28, 2010
Batool and Mahmood: Entertainment, communication or academic use?
various educational and other purposes, due to high speed and reliable connectivity. However, among 28 reported reasons for Internet non-use, the first in rank was the respondents’ dissatisfaction with the cyber cafes. Eighty-three percent of female respondents did not find the cyber cafes’ environment conducive for their use (Shafique and Mahmood, 2009). In another study, female users were reported to feel deprived of a favorable environment in Internet cafes. They complained of people watching unethical websites, movies, playing songs and smoking at these places. Calling such technological disparities between women and men a ‘‘gender digital divide,’’ experts said that there was a need to come up with innovative ideas and gender specific policies to narrow the gap between men and women in this respect (‘Girls deprived . . . ,’ 2008).
143
Table 1. Internet cafe users in Lahore, by age group Age (years)
Frequency
Percentage
15 or younger 16–22 23–29 30–39 40–49 50 or over Missing Total
31 130 56 14 5 3 3 242
12.8 53.7 23.1 5.8 2.1 1.2 1.2 100.0
in all questions. Respondents were asked why they preferred to use Internet cafes and to indicate on a list of 22 activities performed at these cafes those that were most relevant to them. The respondents were also asked to indicate any problems they faced in using the cafes. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 16.0.
Objectives and methods The objectives of this study were to find out the:
profile of Internet cafe users on various demographic variables; frequency of use of Internet cafes; users’ preferences to choose Internet cafes; purposes for which people use Internet cafes; and problems of cafe users.
This descriptive research was based on a questionnaire survey. The study sample consisted of 242 users from 49 Internet cafes in Lahore (the second largest city of Pakistan with a population of 10 million). As there was no list of Internet cafes in the city, the cafes were selected by using snowball sampling method, referred by cafe owners and users. Very few Internet cafes were identified in low socio-economic areas, so the study covered a range of high to middle socioeconomic areas. Users of the Internet cafes were approached from noon till late evening in order to consider the rush hours. In the light of the literature review a preliminary questionnaire was prepared and distributed among the users of two Internet cafes for pre-testing. It was modified and translated into Urdu as suggested during pre-testing. The questionnaire was administered by the researchers. All users present during the visits to the cafes were requested to complete the questionnaire. A total of 242 respondents were targeted. The data collection instrument consisted of demographic and multiple choice questions with an option of ‘other’
Results and discussion Demographic profile of participants Table 1 shows that the biggest group of users were people between the ages of 16 and 22 (53.7 percent). Although the legal minimum age for using Internet cafes in Pakistan is 15 years, some users below 15 years of age (12.8 percent) were observed surfing the Internet, playing games and chatting online in the cafes. Table 2 shows that the great majority (91.7 percent) of cafe users were male. The fact that only 8.3 percent of respondents were female confirms the findings of similar studies in other countries, that male users are predominant in Internet cafes. Table 3 shows the education level of the Internet cafe users. Most of them (57.9 percent) had university level education, but it is interesting to note that 55 respondents (22.7 percent) had attended high school and 33 respondents (13.6 percent) had only elementary level education. Table 4 shows that most of the Internet cafe users were students (36.8 percent). The others included information technology/computer professionals, businessmen, engineers, doctors, salesmen, unemployed, teachers, bankers/accountants, lawyers, journalists, public servants, managers and researchers. Respondents other than students and the unemployed were asked to indicate their monthly incomes. According to the Economic Survey of Pakistan
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Table 2. Internet cafe users in Lahore, by gender Gender
Frequency
Percentage
Male Female Total
222 20 242
91.7 8.3 100.0
Table 3. Internet cafe users in Lahore, by educational level Education Elementary (up to 13 years of age) High school (up to 18 years of age) University (above 18 years of age) Missing Total
Frequency
Percentage
33
13.6
55
22.7
140
57.9
14 242
5.8 100.0
Table 5. Internet cafe users in Lahore, by monthly income group (excluding students [89 cases] and the unemployed [7 cases]) Monthly income (PKR) Below 5,000 5,000–10,000 11,000–15,000 16,000–20,000 21,000–25,000 26,000–30,000 Above 30,000 Missing Total (excluding students and unemployed)
Frequency
Percentage
25 49 18 23 5 5 4 17 146
17.1 33.6 12.3 15.8 3.4 3.4 2.7 11.6 100.0
the importance of the Internet cafes as means of access to the Internet for the poorer members of the community.
Table 4. Internet cafe users in Lahore, by occupation Occupation
Frequency
Percentage
Student IT/computer professional Businessman Engineer Doctor Salesman Unemployed Teacher Banker/accountant Lawyer Journalist Public servant Manager Researcher Others Missing Total
89 19 17 16 14 10 7 6 5 4 4 3 3 2 41 2 242
36.8 7.9 7.0 6.6 5.8 4.1 2.9 2.5 2.1 1.7 1.7 1.2 1.2 0.8 16.9 0.8 100.0
2008–2009, the average per capita income in Pakistan is PKR 7,417 per month (Ministry of Finance, 2009). This figure falls about midway in the PKR 5,000– 10,000 income group shown in Table 5, suggesting that perhaps as many as half the users in that group (say, 25 cases) have incomes below the national average. Taken together with the 25 users reporting incomes below PKR 5,000 per month, this suggests that perhaps 50 respondents (34.2 percent) had incomes below the national average, thus confirming
Use of Internet access points Although having a computer at home is now economical for middle class citizens in Pakistan and, as indicated above, many people use the Internet at their offices, educational institutions, homes, etc., Table 6 shows that, for the great majority of respondents to this survey (79.3 percent), the Internet cafe is the access point they use most.
Frequency of use of Internet cafes Table 7 shows that a majority of the respondents were regular visitors to the Internet cafes, with nearly 80 percent visiting a cafe at least once a week and less than 8 percent visiting only once a month or less frequently.
Reasons for using Internet cafes The users in this study were asked to indicate why they preferred to use the Internet at these cafes (Table 8). They were allowed to indicate more than one preference. The results revealed that 59.5 percent felt it convenient to use cafes in terms of their location, 33.9 percent appreciated the high speed of Internet available at the cafes, while 14.0 percent visited cafes because of the availability of printing facilities. Interestingly in view of the data on average monthly income shown in Table 5, only 8.7 percent used the cafes because they were offering cheaper Internet surfing rates than other access points. It would thus
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Table 6. Internet cafe users in Lahore; most used Internet access points
Table 8. Internet cafe users in Lahore; reasons for using Internet cafes
Access points
Frequency
Percentage
Rank
Preferences
Percentage
Internet cafe Home Office School/college/university Other Missing Total
192 26 14 2 4 4 242
79.3 10.7 5.8 0.8 1.7 1.7 100.0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Convenient location High speed access Availability of printers Assistance to users Reliability of power supply Cheaper than other sources Security
59.5 33.9 14.0 11.2 10.7 8.7 5.0
Table 7. Internet cafe users in Lahore; frequency of use of Internet cafes
Table 9. Internet cafe users in Lahore; purposes for using Internet cafes
Use
Frequency
Percentage
Rank
Activities
Percentage
Almost every day 3–4 days a week 1–2 days a week Twice to thrice a month Once a month or less Missing Total
76 71 44 28 19 4 242
31.4 29.3 18.2 11.6 7.9 1.7 100.0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 10 12 13 13 15 16 17
Entertainment (music/games) Read/send email Chat Browsing/surfing Sports/television Search for job Academic research Read news groups To supplement coursework Downloading software To learn Internet skills To visit recommended sites Browse for scholarship Political purposes Browse on behalf of others Upcoming and on-going events College admission and sponsor search Health purposes Shopping and transaction Web design/registration Distance learning To engage in discussion groups
56.6 39.7 39.3 21.5 19.4 15.3 13.6 13.2 12.0 10.7 10.7 8.7 6.6 6.6 6.2 5.8 5.4
appear that, even among the substantial proportion of users with incomes below the national average, other factors were more important than cost in their decisions to use the Internet cafes.
Purposes for using Internet cafes Based on the literature review, a list of 22 activities that could be carried out through the Internet was provided to the respondents, who were asked to indicate the activities they themselves mainly engaged in when using the Internet cafes. They were allowed to indicate multiple activities. The results are presented in Table 9. The results confirm those of previous studies (e.g. Singh and Krishnatray, 2003; Gurol and Servindik, 2006; Furuholt, Kristiansen and Wahid, 2008) that Internet cafes in different countries are mostly used for entertainment, email and chat. Although a large number of the participants in this study were students, they rarely used the Internet for academic purposes such as research, college admission, scholarships, reading news groups and seeking help for course assignments.
Problems experienced at Internet cafes Public access places should be designed to meet their users’ needs and demands. Respondents were allowed
17 19 20 20 22
5.4 4.5 3.7 3.7 2.5
to indicate any problems they faced at these cafes (multiple responses were allowed). More than half the respondents (54.1 percent) complained about lack of privacy and disturbance from other users and 47.5 percent about poor quality of service. Despite the fact that, as shown in Table 8, ‘convenient location’ was cited by nearly 60 percent of respondents as their the main reason for using Internet cafes, 43.0 percent complained about the poor location of the cafes in the city. Similar discrepancies between the two sets of results were noted in respect of reliability of power supply, speed of Internet access, charges for Internet
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Table 10. Internet cafe users in Lahore; problems experienced at Internet cafes
technology. Special orientation programs for students could be helpful to improve the situation.
Rank
Problems
Percentage
References
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
No privacy/disturbance Lack of quality services Poor location Poor environment Electricity failure Poor Internet speed Costly internet rates No data security Outdated equipment Not compatible timings Lack of printing/scanning etc. facilities Damaged equipment
54.1 47.5 43.0 33.5 23.5 21.4 19.8 19.4 15.7 14.4 11.1
E-Commerce Resource Centre. (2006) Country progress report – Pakistan. (2006). Retrieved from http://www. afact.org/doctemp/00003/ afact_353420060706174812.pdf Furuholt, B., Kristiansen, S., and Wahid, F. (2008) Comparing the use of Internet cafes in Indonesia and Tanzania. International Information and Library Review, 40, 129–139. ‘Girls deprived of quality net cafes in Pakistan.’ (2008, December 15) Retrieved from http://www.thaindian. com/newsportal/world-news/girls-deprived-of-quality-netcafes-in-pakistan_100131236.html Gurol, M., and Sevindik, T. (2006) Profile of Internet cafe users in Turkey. Telematics and Informatics, 24, 59–68. Hong, J., and Huang, L. (2005) A split and swaying approach to building information society: The case of Internet cafes in China. Telematics and Informatics, 22, 377–393. Internet World Stats. (2010) Usage and population statistics. Retrieved from http://www.Internetworldstats.com Kenneth, R. (2008, January 20) Only 2.12 percent people use Internet in Pakistan. Daily Pakistan. Ministry of Finance (2009) Economic survey of Pakistan 2008–09. Islamabad: Ministry of Finance. Ministry of Information Technology (n.d.) Broadband penetration in Pakistan: Current scenario and future prospects. Retrieved from http://www.ispak.com.pk/ downloads/MoITstudyon/broadbandpenetration.pdf Pakistan Telecommunication Authority. (2003) Consultation paper on cyber cafe regulations. Retrieved from www.pakcon.org/post-pakcon/pc-khi-04-jawad-electronic-commerceand-cyber-crime.pdf Pakistan Telecommunication Authority. (2009) Annual report. Islamabad: PTA. People’s Republic of China. Ministry of Culture. (2008) China culture and cultural product statistical yearbook. Beijing: Library Press. Prevention of Electronic Crimes Ordinance. (2009) Retrieved from http://www.na.gov.pk/ordinances/ ord2009/prevention_electronic_crime_ord2009_210809. pdf Shafique, F., and Mahmood, K. (2009) Why the offline are offline: A survey of Internet use by educated Pakistani adults. CyberPsychology and Behavior, 12(3), 351–354. Singh, P. P., and Krishnatray, P. (2003) Gratifications from Internet use: A survey of cyber cafe users in a Central Indian city. Retrieved from http://www.hicsocial.org/ social2003proceedings/pushpendra percent 20pal percent 20singh.pdf. Warf, B. and Vincent, P. (2007) Multiple geographies of the Arab Internet. Area, 39(1), 83–96.
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use, availability of printers and security. These may be explained by variations in the levels of service offered by different cafes, with some providing more conducive environments than others.
Conclusion This study found that Internet cafes in Pakistan’s second largest city of Lahore are used primarily by males, mostly of the ages between 16 and 22. People who have completed or continue education at university level, especially students, are in the majority. People who are of middle or low economic status are the regular users of the cafes. Entertainment, email and chat are the favorite activities at these cafes, followed by browsing the Internet, watching television or sports and searching for jobs. Only a few users use the Internet for academic and research activities. The users complained about the improper location, nonconducive environment and poor quality of service in many of the cafes. It is recommended that Internet cafes must be regularized under government laws to provide satisfactory standards of service and improve the environment. The environment should also be made conducive for female users. Internet cafes must be within reach of all urban and rural residents. The users must be educated in order to minimize unethical and illegal use of Internet cafes. Measures should be taken to maintain privacy of the users. The infrequent use of Internet cafes for academic purposes is alarming. One reason for this may be the lack of awareness among students about the academic benefits of this
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Batool and Mahmood: Entertainment, communication or academic use?
About the authors Syeda Hina Batool is a Lecturer in Library and Information Science at the University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. Phone and fax: þ92 42 99231224. Email: hina@ dlis.pu.edu.pk
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Dr. Khalid Mahmood is Professor of Library and Information Science at the University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. Phone and fax: þ92 42 99231224. Email: khalid@ dlis.pu.edu.pk (corresponding author)
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