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Gamers breathe new life to internet cafes in Jakarta
City's 'warnet' reinvent themselves for e-sport age
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Gamers use computers in an internet café. (Shutterstock/File)
W
ith most public places now providing free Wi-Fi and the emergence of co-working spaces, hundreds of warung internet (internet cafes), or warnet for short, have closed down across the city.
But the rise of gaming enthusiasts and e-sports has ensured the survival of many.
Gravity Evolution, a warnet in Jelambar, West Jakarta, has managed to remain open for 10 years by adapting to the revolution in how people access the internet over the past few years. “We have upgraded our computers four times in the last 10 years [to be able to keep up with gaming],” Gravity Evolution manager Indra Sandy Permana told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
Indra said that back in 2009 the warnet was called Gravity and offered work-related programs such as Microsoft Word, and also browsing and printing services. Then free Wi-Fi connections and the growing number of smartphones that offer speedy internet access meant these services were no longer relevant to many people.
Three years later, the warnet reinvented itself to focus on gaming and changed its name to Gravity Evolution.
“We knew we had to adapt, so we conducted surveys and conceptualized what kind of warnet we wanted,” said Indra.
Indra added that the boom in new computer games such as Dota 2 in 2013 and more recent Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) in 2017 allowed the new concept to work.
