Well hi everybody I am new here and I reacted on an ad number 215400 "profitable established internet game online business for sale " identified as Nickthegreek from Mueang Rayong.

I just asked him a few questions and on my first email I got a very rude response back assuming I was a timewaster.

His email arrived also in my junk box which is strange According to the ad the shop is established 5 years and I wanted to know how old the computers are and he replied over 3 years old . Well 10 years old could also be correct for an answer like this

I think this is not a honest seller

Is an internet business profitable to invest in Thailand ? Someone has experience with this.?.Surely not longer interested in this man and his add and besides if the computers are 5 year old like the business it is not a bargain but you will buy yourself into a lot of problems

Ask yourself this - now that smart phones and tablets are widespread and likely to be more so in the future, now that 3G has finally arrived and 4G and upward are likely to arrive, who are going to be the customers in your newly acquired Internet shop, and what will be their spending power?

Then walk away. Ten or fifteen years ago it might have been a good idea.

If your a Farang few Business you can go into will make any profit..Why was he Rude and trying to sell it you may ask?

If not to far away I would go see it personally if truly interested..There Are Many Internet shops in the Kingdom...

I would be wary of buying a tub of hummus from someone by that name, let alone a business.

Even after all these years I still cant believe just how many ignorant farang losers there are here, pretending to run "businesses".

Doubt there is much money to be made in an internet shop. Most focus on games for kids, spending 20 baht an hour, filling the machines up with viruses etc.

I think there are two types of places, Internet Cafés and Gaming shops.

Who would be your clientele? The Farang wanting to check his mail, or a bunch of kids playing shoot-em-ups?

High Street location or in a small town?

Either way I don't think it would generate a high standard of living for a Farang.

The Maths are quite simple 15 or 20 baht an hour.. If you had 10 machines with 50% occupancy over 12 hours, your revenue would be only 900 to 1200 baht a day.

I'm not sure I would be interested in that.

I have noticed these places in decline over the years, nowadays people are using their phones and tablets more and more.

There are now 22 million private internet connects in Thailand -10 years ago there were 200,000 does that answer your question?

I think there are two types of places, Internet Cafés and Gaming shops.

Who would be your clientele? The Farang wanting to check his mail, or a bunch of kids playing shoot-em-ups?

High Street location or in a small town?

Either way I don't think it would generate a high standard of living for a Farang.

The Maths are quite simple 15 or 20 baht an hour.. If you had 10 machines with 50% occupancy over 12 hours, your revenue would be only 900 to 1200 baht a day.

I'm not sure I would be interested in that.

I have noticed these places in decline over the years, nowadays people are using their phones and tablets more and more.

It's much worse than that,minus your rent,at least one staff monthly salary,and depreciation on the computers and repairs. I costed out a computer business such as this,and found there was very little potential profits to be made.

Any potential buyer needs to do some serious homework,such as walk by the shop several times a day for 2 weeks and see how many customers there are on average,it's not too difficult to see it's a waste of time,i've seen plenty close down.

In my area they are 5 - 8 baht an hour, and never even half full, kids now are too busy playing there own tablets/ smart phones that cost 2000 baht and using free wi fi.

Once upon a time maybe.....realistically they are and will become more a thing of the past.......in my opinion.

Definetly not a good idea in my humble opinion.

Maybe busy when schools are on holiday or after school for students to help with their homework but otherwise every establishment I've been in has few customers and the overheads ar pretty high especially if you want fans and aircon for customer comfort.

Now I have internet in the home so don't visit them anymore but as said above there are alternativs now to the Intenet cafe.

I had a friend who tried this and was lucky to take 1,000B a month which was not enough tp pay for the internet connection. Other than children playing games, his only other customers were those who wanted to use Skype. I could never see him make a profit or start rcovring his intial outlay. Sure enough he closed up after 18 months.

Thank you all so much for your very wise answers . Yes I have made up my mind now I will stay out of internet shop business .Thank you for sharing your experience with me it have saved me a lot of money.opening an internet shop is definitely not a good idea .

Off topic, but the beautiful part of all this is the kids have effectively brought that gaming time they spent in cafe's 5 or more years ago, right into school with them on their phones. It is so beautiful, really. I could literally not think of a more detrimental thing to have in an already crippled education system. i have no idea why phones are allowed in school