Popular years fifteen years ago and then disappeared computer clubs are returning: in less than a year, three large establishments with a total area of more than 8 thousand square meters opened in Moscow alone. m
Photo: Arseny Neskhodimov for RBC
IN South Korea there are about 30 thousand computer clubs, in Russia there are unlikely to be 300,” says Yaroslav Komkov, managing partner of the e-sports agency Winstrike. He just returned from Asia and was impressed: there are clubs in almost every building - all of Korea is playing. Komkov is going to open a network of computer clubs in the USA, Europe and Asia, he has already attracted investments, but has not yet disclosed the details.
Today, a new wave of popularity for clubs is provided by the development of e-sports. Not all young people have the hardware necessary for modern games, much less VR devices, explains Robert Meliksetyan, head of digital content at J’son & Partners Consulting. In 2016, the global eSports market reached $463 million; until 2019, it will add an average of 32.3% annually, according to a study by Newzoo.
Russia is the leader of this movement in the European region both in terms of market size ($35.4 million) and audience (2.2 million people). Moreover, the Russian segment of the industry will grow by an average of 11% per year in the next two years. in monetary terms and almost 40% in terms of the number of participants, according to J’son & Partners Consulting. This is partly why computer clubs in Russia have received a second life. True, for this they had to be re-invented.
To the club by appointment
“In 2008, we suddenly discovered that there was no longer a queue to the club,” recalls Denis Bogush, chairman of the Belarusian E-Sports Federation and owner of the oldest computer club in Belarus, Tarantul. Designed for 40 cars, “Tarantula” was opened in Minsk in 2001, then “it was fashionable.”
Back in 2006-2007, people signed up for Tarantul by phone and stood in lines, Bogush says with nostalgia. “We had cards that we issued to clients. The longer he waited, the greater the discount: an hour wait - 10%, two hours - 20%. We knew in advance that at 8:45 in the morning, after the first lesson, there would be a bunch of calls from schoolchildren,” Bogush laughs.
During the 2009 crisis, the entrepreneur did not take advantage of the fact that clients lost the opportunity to upgrade their home cars, since there was not enough money for the planned update of the hardware in the club - thereby he was unable to attract new audiences to the club. And after the economic situation began to improve, people began to have high-speed Internet in large numbers and began to leave their homes less often.
The total area of the two-story Yota Arena building is 5 thousand square meters. m
Bogush then even wanted to close the business, but today Tarantul not only pays for itself, but also generates a profit of about $3 thousand per month. For comparison, in the peak years of 2002-2003 the club brought in $1.5 thousand, says Bogush. For 2016, net profit was about $30 thousand, in previous years it was $5-6 thousand less. “People have played enough with bad graphics, now they want to achieve results in the game, but without a powerful computer it is impossible to do this,” the entrepreneur explains the new round of popularity of his brainchild.
For the first computer clubs in the 1990s, their owners rented any premises, placed 40 computers in a row and rented them out for 20 rubles. per hour, says Nikita Bokarev, head of media at ESforce holding (formerly Virtus.pro). Bokarev recalls that the number of such establishments numbered in the hundreds. “Anything could happen in them; the rooms were constantly smoky and there was no security.”
We communicate with Bokarev while walking around the Yota Arena building, which opened on May 19, 2017. A year and a half before the opening ceremony, USM Holding Alisher Usmanov and partners promised to invest $100 million in Virtus.pro. The top manager of the esports holding ESforce is sure: “Today, a computer club of the old format would not survive.” In his opinion, people need new entertainment - the ability to use VR, eat in a cafe, they need a special atmosphere that is created by e-sports paraphernalia, and all this in one place.
"Mecca of eSports"
The total area of Yota Arena is about 5 thousand square meters. m. In addition to a large space for hosting e-sports competitions, there is a restaurant with a copy of the throne from “Game of Thrones” and a store of paraphernalia and souvenirs for gamers, FragStore. Also in Yota Arena at 216 sq. m there is a computer club with 90 seats. The creation of the complex cost $10 million, but the company did not disclose how much of it went directly to the computer club.
Yota Arena is conceived primarily as a platform for meeting gamers and holding eSports tournaments, but then it would only be active during the competition period, Bokarev explains. The computer club makes it possible to create a place in Moscow for training e-sportsmen. It shows several separate rooms. One of them is hidden behind the door of the shelter from the game Fallout. Inside, at the entrance, there are two statues from World of Warcraft. Despite the gaming paraphernalia, the hall does not give the impression of a place for youth recreation. In the middle there is a table with a white tablecloth, beautiful dishes and candlesticks, on the wall there is a large “plasma” for watching broadcasts, and there is a waiter dedicated to serving guests. Everything is designed for adults, accomplished people, because the “portrait of an e-sportsman” has changed: both the audience of fans and the players themselves are growing up. And more and more money is coming to the market.
Gamers come to the club even in summer: during the day - teenagers, and in the evening - people over 35 years old (Photo: Arseny Neskhodimov for RBC)
“Former players who were champions in the early 2000s like to come to us,” explains Bokarev. They don't play as often on their own anymore, but continue to follow tournaments, he added. Bokarev himself played Counter-Strike professionally in 2005–2011 and led the eSports team forZe. In 2007, he was the creative director of a computer club in Moscow, but it did not pay off.
However, the bulk of visitors to the Yota Arena club are members of young eSports teams who have not yet played in tournaments: it is important for them to have fast Internet, modern computers and sit next to each other to communicate. Fans of tournaments and competitions are the core of the club. “They consider Yota Arena a kind of e-sports mecca,” the ESforce top manager is proud.
What is happening now is somewhat similar to what happened a decade and a half ago, Bokarev believes: players are again spontaneously uniting and founding clans, they need a place where they can gather and not only play, but also discuss something. On average, a player spends four to five hours in the club, although one game, for example in Dota, takes about one and a half.
Not only gamers, but also people unfamiliar with the industry will come to a modern computer club, ESforce top manager Nikita Bokarev is sure (Photo: Arseny Neskhodimov for RBC)
Yota Arena has security on duty around the clock, it is always clean, monitors with maximum diagonal, comfortable gaming chairs, mice and keyboards are praised in the holding. However, fans and old-timers of eSports are not the only audience that can be lured into the new generation of computer clubs.
Shopping Rescue
Andrey Komogorov, a former employee of Euroset, helped the Tele2 operator enter Moscow in October 2015: his company Clover Estate found premises to open more than 250 communication stores. And already at the beginning of 2016, he rented almost 1.3 thousand square meters. m in the Aviapark shopping center and opened the e-sports club Gamer Stadium. The idea came unexpectedly. "I saw potential clients: Men and teenagers who get bored while women go shopping. They are no longer interested in going to KidZania, and the cinema takes a long time.” Komogorov calls Gamer Stadium a stadium.
He invested $500 thousand of his personal savings into opening Gamer Stadium. They went to build the site, purchase computers and furniture. We managed to break even in the first month of operation. Komogorov wanted to cut some of the costs and receive computers in exchange for promoting manufacturers in the club, but the plan did not work and the purchase of hardware cost 5 million rubles. The cost of equipping one seat for a professional player starts from 100 thousand rubles, Komogorov clarifies.
Players spend an average of four to five hours at the club. The format of the establishments has changed: they have food, drinks, security and technical support (Photo: Arseny Neskhodimov for RBC)
In retail, a gaming set consisting of a computer and monitor can cost from several thousand to hundreds of thousands of rubles, says general manager Acer in Russia Dmitry Kravchenko. In 2017, the company supplied computers and monitors for the Cyberspace club worth “several tens of thousands of dollars,” equipping most of places (their total number is 97). Club "on special conditions» purchased Acer GX 781 desktops and Predator XB241 monitors - their recommended retail price is 99.9 thousand and 37.9 thousand rubles. accordingly, adds Kravchenko.
In two years, Gamer Stadium should recoup its investment. Then Komogorov will begin to expand his network to Russian cities with a population of over a million: the entrepreneur plans to focus on educational lectures and IT-related projects. For example, Komogorov is negotiating with Microsoft and Mail.Ru Group about organizing training courses. Already now, one of the rooms with computers in Gamer Studium is rented by the Algorithm school.
“Singles” - visitors to the shopping center and gamers - bring Gamer Stadium over 500 thousand rubles. per month, says Komogorov. “Summer is a low season in retail, but even in June things were going well: the bad weather in Moscow played into our hands,” rejoices the owner of a computer club.
When purchasing a Gamer Stadium club card for 1 thousand rubles. all services of the establishment and goods in the bar are purchased with a 50 percent discount, for example, an hour of play will cost 100 rubles. instead of 200 rub. For comparison, 60 game minutes in Yota Arena cost 50 rubles. (one of the lowest price tags on the market), in Cyberspace - from free promo to 150 rubles. depending on the time of day.
Andrey Komogorov plans to open computer clubs in shopping centers in every million-plus city (Photo: Arseny Neskhodimov for RBC)
However, Gamer Stadium receives most of its revenue from corporate clients: the cost of renting a club with staff services for the whole day starts from 118 thousand rubles. In May 2017 alone, Komogorov’s establishment hosted seven events. The Yota Arena club also relies on corporate clients. The company can get the site for free, the main thing is to pay for service in the restaurant, food and alcohol, says Bokarev. Average check in a restaurant is 1.5-2 thousand rubles. per person, so far there have been three major events. On quick payback in Yota Arena they don’t count: in the spring of 2017, managing partner of ESforce Holding Anton Cherepennikov said that the planning horizon is seven years.
In Cyberspace, owned by the IT distributor Pronet and opened in the Riviera shopping center in July 2017 on an area of 2 thousand square meters. m, we decided not to focus on corporate clients. For a month of operation, income is divided equally - from visitors and organization of events, said company representative Maria Koroleva. In addition, Cyberspace now has a large " strategic partner» - Russian e-sports company Vega Squadron. If there is not enough space at the training base in the Moscow region, the players come to Riviera, said the creator and owner of Vega Squadron, Alexey Kondakov. Cyberspace gets an additional audience this way: fans of the team come to chat with their idols at the club and spend money there, Kondakov noted.
“There are several high-profile openings [of computer clubs in Moscow], but this is unlikely to become a mass phenomenon,” Gadzhi Makhtiev, founder of the gaming publication Kanobu, doubts the prospects of the trend. However, queues are forming, which means that something in the reincarnation of the clubs reminds visitors of the past, he argues.
Some people believe that computer clubs are not profitable these days. They say, who needs them? Many people have a computer, laptop, tablet at home... Who will go there? But is this true?
Who needs computer clubs?
Firstly, there are still many people who cannot imagine their life without several games of DotA or breathtaking races with friends.
In addition, sometimes there is a need to quickly find certain information online, print it, or send an email. And if a computer or laptop is not at hand, first of all a person begins to look for a nearby Internet shop.
Opening a computer club is real profitable solution, an idea that will bring you significant income in the near future.
Step 1. Finding a suitable location
Unlike other areas of business, in this case proximity to the city center is not of decisive importance, so it is not worth overpaying for a place “in the sun”.
The key factor in this case is the opportunity to open a 24-hour computer club. Without this, you could lose a significant portion of your potential customers.
In addition, you should focus on the availability of the premises. Your salon should not be too far from bus stops public transport and busy streets - otherwise, your customers may simply be intercepted by competitors.
And one more important point, which, willy-nilly, you will have to pay attention to when deciding the question: “How to open a computer club?” We are talking about choosing between renting and buying an object. Considering that the basis of this business is a mobile computer network, which, if necessary, can be easily moved to another location; in order to save money, it would be more logical to rent a room. However, if you decide to firmly “put down roots” in the chosen place and have enough money, you can buy it. This will allow you to significantly reduce your monthly expenses in the future.
Technical requirements
It is important that the room has electricity, climate control systems, and not too much humidity. Immediately take care of installing high-speed Internet and distributing it between all computers. Another point is the suitability of the premises modern requirements fire safety.
Of course, a computer club must have an emergency exit and a bathroom.
Step 2. Paperwork
No matter how much you resist, if you decide to open your own computer club, you will have to communicate with representatives of some government agencies that control the activities of entrepreneurs.
First of all, we are talking about the sanitary and epidemiological service. According to current sanitary standards, each working (playing) place should not be less than 4 m 2. By the way, this factor also needs to be taken into account when choosing a room to rent or buy.
In addition, SES workers must record the level of electromagnetic radiation near each computer. You will have to pay for this service (about 1000 rubles for checking each device). Unfair? Perhaps, but without this you can only dream of your own computer club.
Finally, you will have to cooperate with the youth department of the district or city government administration. It would seem, what does he have to do with it? It's even trickier here. You must carefully monitor your visitors so that you are not accused of distracting schoolchildren from their studies and serving as a “den” for difficult children.
According to our legislation, schoolchildren do not have the right to be in computer clubs during lessons, and children under the age of 14 should not stay with you after 21:00. By the way, violating the second condition is fraught with heavy fines from the police, so you shouldn’t turn a blind eye to flagrant violations (even out of sincere human solidarity).
Which OKVED code to choose for an online salon?
Another important point that needs to be taken into account when opening a computer club is OKVED. Depending on which code is used, you will be able to register your establishment under certain conditions. Unfortunately, the “Computer Club” item is simply missing in the classification. Therefore, almost all owners of such establishments choose from alternative options:
- 72.60 – other activities related to the use information technology and computer technology;
- 93.05 – provision of other personal services;
- 74.84 – provision of other services.
However, regarding this issue It is best to consult with a specialist who can evaluate your activities and choose the most appropriate option from a legal point of view.
Step 3. Purchase of equipment
This is perhaps the most important stage in organizing your business. If you are interested in how to open a computer club, you should understand that in order for your establishment to bring you significant profit, you must have at least 15 machines at your disposal.
Many new entrepreneurs make the same mistake: getting hung up on computer games. Meanwhile, it is equally important to provide your customers with a high-speed Internet access channel.
Why is corporate Internet access so important?
It should be emphasized that corporate Internet access is not at all the same as a home access point. Moreover, the difference lies not only in cost, but also in bandwidth and data exchange speed. The price of the cheapest network access with an information transfer speed of up to 256 Kbit/s is about 6 thousand rubles. However, taking into account modern customer demands, even this is not enough. The best option a channel of 50 Mbit/s or more is considered. And the cost of such a connection can reach 60-80 thousand rubles. per month.
IN modern world It’s almost impossible to do without the Internet. Despite the fact that every day it is becoming more and more popular in private houses and apartments, it is not yet possible to install fiber optics everywhere and make traffic accessible and inexpensive. In this case, a specialized establishment that provides access to the Internet for a fee can be an excellent alternative. It can be a large online club or a relatively small one. In the latter option, a small room is rented, in which up to 20 workstations with computers and software are equipped.
A large computer club has 30-50 fairly powerful machines with high-speed Internet, VIP rooms and cafe. Establishments of this scale pay off slowly, as they require serious capital investments, but they usually do not have problems with regulatory authorities. But regardless of the format of the future institution, you will definitely need a competent and accurate business plan for a computer club.
Legal issues
Any business must be legal from a legal point of view, and gaming is no exception. The best organizational and legal form for opening a computer club is individual entrepreneur ( individual entrepreneur). First you need to come up with a memorable and sonorous name for the club, which is related to computer topics.
In order to register an establishment, you will need:
- registration application;
- articles of association;
- the charter of the future enterprise and information about the founder of the club;
- a receipt indicating payment of the state duty;
- documents that confirm the consent of the antimonopoly authorities.
It is also necessary to settle all issues with regulatory authorities. It is usually difficult to meet all the requirements, so their decision will depend on many factors. In order for the establishment to operate around the clock, you will need to obtain permission from the police department.
If you plan to open a small gaming computer club, then it does not make sense to immediately spend money on purchasing a licensed software, but you still need to take into account that it will be necessary to purchase it in the future. This can be done through Russian representative offices of manufacturing companies. Before installing a licensed program, you will need a special license that allows its commercial use. It can be purchased from a distributor; the cost of the license is calculated individually for each computer club.
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Selecting a location
The best place to open such an establishment is a residential area with a large population or a street where a significant number of educational institutions. Good place to host a computer club - a busy intersection, market area or large store. It is undesirable to open an establishment of this kind in residential buildings, since the audience at the gaming computer club is quite noisy, so residents will definitely complain. In addition, in a residential building the club is most often located in the basement, so it will be difficult to obtain permits from the sanitary and epidemiological station and the fire inspectorate.
The rental cost per square meter in residential areas is usually low, so the annual payment will not be too high.
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Clients and demand for services
The main visitors to the computer club will be:
- students and schoolchildren visiting the institution not only for educational purposes, but also for playing;
- clients different ages who do not often go to the computer club.
Considering that the sphere of distribution of computer services is quite developed, the main attention in the project development process must be paid to the relationship between the user and the seller.
It is necessary to place the main emphasis on the qualifications, competence and friendliness of the managers who will serve the gaming room.
Computer club services are almost always in demand. But at the same time, seasonal deviations to a smaller or larger direction are possible. During exams and sessions at universities, attendance for educational purposes increases significantly, and games begin to interest potential clients during school holidays.
In the pricing process, it is important to take into account the purchasing power of the intended customers and the quality of the services provided.
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Necessary equipment and hiring of personnel
The next step is purchasing equipment. It is important here not to save on purchasing necessary equipment, since many visitors come to play in the computer club, and games require high-quality and modern equipment. Therefore, the more powerful the technology, the more visited the establishment will be. You will also need to purchase printers and scanners, appropriate furniture: tables, chairs; equip workplace administrator.
Next, you need to select the right personnel for the job. For technical support and settings computer equipment and software you will need several people. You can invite students from specialized universities who live nearby. If we talk about a small club, then for its normal operation 3-4 people will be enough to maintain the software and work with clients. You will also need one system administrator. Basically, computer clubs operate around the clock, so you need to organize work in two shifts. You can’t do without a security guard, since the establishment will have expensive equipment.
For official registration staff will need to register employment contract in many authorities, such as tax authorities, social, pension and health insurance funds. It will be necessary to maintain payroll records for each employee work books and tax cards. Therefore, if possible, it is better to negotiate with a large organization so that the staff is registered there, and then leased to the club. As a result, you can get rid of paperwork, which will be handled by the enterprise’s HR department. For reference accounting You will need an accountant if the club owner himself cannot handle this matter.
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Ways to advertise effectively
After opening a new computer club, you can start advertising campaign. For this you will need:
- Post up leaflets with prices and the address of the club on schools and entrances of houses (before drawing up the ad layout, it is important to take into account that the main target audience teenagers 10-18 years old);
- place advertisements on the Internet on specialized websites;
- create a noticeable and bright sign with detailed list services provided;
- regularly organize various promotions and tournaments;
- create a system of discounts, for example, for clients who work more than three hours in a row.
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Development of a computer club
For a newly opened establishment, it is important to provide a sufficient level of service, because most computer clubs are usually inattentive to their clients. Since a specific audience usually gathers in this place, it is necessary to act outside the box. There are situations when older guys demand money from younger ones. Therefore, as an option, you can give hooligans a free monthly subscription. You can also try to attract the attention of visitors to your establishment through various competitions with monetary rewards. Or create a scoreboard.
It is necessary to invent and implement original ideas, as a result of constant development even small club will help significantly increase monthly revenue from each computer. Over time, the establishment will be able to switch to new level, whose clients will be the wealthy public. The following services will be available:
- high-speed Internet access;
- copying and burning discs;
- working with office applications;
- scanning various documents;
- printing files;
- photocopying;
- conducting computer courses.
It may be necessary to create two rooms: one, a games room, for young people, the other for more serious clients.
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