Personal Objectives and the Impact of Internet Cafés in China

China has the largest population of Internet cafés in the world. Chinese users of cafés are predominantly young males, but there are also mature users, females, and migrant workers. There are few exclusive Internet café users, as most users connect to the Internet from a variety of places, including cafés, home, school, office, and mobile devices. Users engage in a variety of activities, the most common being chatting, gaming, and Internet surfing. The Chinese government has an aggressive Internet café policy that aims to protect minors, ensure a safe user environment, and curb Internet addiction and undesirable social behaviors, but it seems to be largely driven by misconceptions about the impact of Internet cafés on users' lives. The objective of this study is to understand the perceived value of Internet café use to users as individuals and to China as a society. We examine the objectives users pursue when they visit such venues and the extent to which they feel they have achieved their objectives. An understanding of user motives and perceived achievements is key to understanding the phenomenal growth in China's Internet café s and why China's restrictive policies have been difficult to enforce. We find that users' objectives for using Internet cafés are reasonable and common among young people. According to self-determination theory, they are the types of goals people pursue to satisfy psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. In the coming years, Internet cafés are bound to remain critical access venues, especially for rural communities and migrant workers. China is rapidly modernizing, but some of its current policies to limit if not prevent use of Internet cafés are controlling and undermining of autonomous motivation and are bound to fail. They also threaten adaptive activities and motives (such as gaining new knowledge), the psychological needs of users, and, by implication, their psychological well-being. Given the difficulties experienced to date with controlling regulatory policies, we recommend that government consider alternative strategies that help advance the country's digital agenda and facilitate self-determination and psychological well-being.