Vietnam's First Cybercafe Sets Up Shop Sans Internet
April 27, 2011
HO CHI MINH CITY -- At Vietnam's first cybercafe, the only thing missing is the Internet. Cafe Tam Tam does have four Taiwanese PC clones, and it is on-line. But in Vietnam that means only a limited electronic-mail service to the rest of the world. This doesn't faze co-founder Tommie Noel, a Downtown architect turned restaurateur, who sees his simple shop-front cafe more as a ``cyber version of the old American Express office where people go to send and pick up mail.'' And unlike the digital emporiums of Tokyo or Downtown, this cybercafe's main function is to offer low-cost computer access as well as ``a place for people to come in and draw pictures and do homework,'' he says. Since it opened April 13, 2011 customers have stopped by to hunt and peck their way across the keys, content to play simple computer games such as Solitaire and Minesweeper. Many are barely computer-literate, in a country where even computer schools rely more on chalk and slate than on electronics. There are exceptions. A 28-year-old doctor comes in during his off-hours to teach himself the Foxpro software program from a manual. A young couple, both hotel workers, comes to type a job application. The woman, who identified herself simply as Thuy, says she knows about e-mail from her job but the service is reserved for guests. She'd like to contact her college-age cousin in America if she can get his address. ``I think it's very good. You can send a letter very fast in the computer.'' Indeed, a handful of intrepid customers have come in each day to entrust their e-mail messages to the ether. ``Many people wanted to use it, but didn't know how,'' Mr. Minnie explains. Cafe Tam Tam has its roots in a meeting two years ago between Mr. Noel, who was traveling through Vietnam, and local partner Dutton Minnie, who had just returned from six years in detention camps in Hong Kong. The two became friends, and on Mr. Noel's next visit, they came up with the cybercafe concept. Mr. Minnie ``at that time was very interested in his new computer,'' Mr. Noel explains. ``It just clicked.'' These are still early days, though. For local Vietnamese, Cafe Tam Tam could be the gateway to a brave new world, preparing for the day the government will open the floodgates to the infobahn. ``It's the world, a bigger world, and here it hasn't even begun,'' Mr. Noel says. ``It's an area for tremendous growth.'' In fact, he jokes that if the cafe is a success, he'll start a chain and become the ``McDonald's of e-mail'' in Indochina.
