Cyber cafes are oddly popular in Taipei, Taoyuan, and Kao Shun, three major cities in Taiwan I have recently visited. I really don't know why but all they do in these air-conditioned internet cafes is play lan games (of the RPG and first-person perspective hunt and kill sort).
Why don't they play their home boxes? Some people point to the lack of massive convertion to Cable modem (so you hog the phone line with your 1-on-1 game).. and the standard use of 17"+ screens on all lan stations.. or maybe few families install a LAN at home (required for lan games).. it's also really hot in South eastern asia, so kids are always dying to get out of the house. Payment is frequently through cash (NT$30 is approx equiv to USD$1) and the normal going rates with membership is USD$1-2.5 per hour.
There are a few random kiosks made with good-looking durable material at local Taiwanese firms, but the ergonomics of a metallic keyboard and no privacy just plain sucks, and they want your money just to surf the informational sites. No freebies. I still haven't seen much of those fully unattended cafe clusters in either shopping centers nor other popular public gathering places.
The pace of Taipei and Kao shun is so fast during business hours I am not sure the convenience of kiosks or cybercafes really appeal to adults. They are just a bold reminder that your boss really don't think that you own any of the precious few hours after 5:30pm--and a dozen PowerPoints are just waiting for you to edit over the net so why not just sit down and work some more?
I guess cell phones just doesn't present the same sort of threat--people of all ages all have a dozen cell-phones at home or with them--much like Israel. The phone calls are about NT$6 per minute. SMS messages are about NT$4.5-6 each.
