Stelios and his hard-traveling inner circle noticed that Internet cafes in most cities were overpriced operations run by nerds, sometimes fleetingly fashionable but frequently going bust.

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It envisages internet cafes springing up to cope with demand for e-mail and web browsing.

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The Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL), which has held more than 1, 500 tournaments since its inception in 1997, relies on Intel and Razer, a mouse-maker, while NVIDIA, a graphics-card manufacturer, iGames, a chain of internet cafes where gamers congregate to play online, and Samsung sponsored Britain's WCG qualifier tournament.

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About a million Vietnamese out of an 80-million-strong population are estimated to have regular access to the web, mainly through internet cafes.

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For instance, VinaGame says it became cash-flow-positive by early 2006 largely by relying on a prepaid card for playing games at Internet cafes.

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This means a substantial number of seniors access the Internet only from shared or public computers (such as at libraries, Internet cafes or senior centers), or by bringing a laptop to a location with open Wi-Fi.

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