Once upon a time, during my early childhood, people didn't have wireless internet nor did they have smartphones. If you wanted access to the internet you really had to go to a computer shop to get things done. You really had no other option.
Netopia was the first franchise of internet shops that was received with some sort of success. It began to spring up in a lot of other places like malls. Others tried to follow suit, but few were as popular as Netopia.
It was an expensive internet cafe compared to most, but then again considering their hardware and the speed of their ISP it was something to be expected. However, as more and more generic computer shops sprung up, Netopia eventually lost its market share since they were too expensive. I mean, the I remember their introductory hourly rate was at fifty pesos. Today, a typical computer shop usually has a three hour promo for that price. You can only imagine how expensive that must be considering that this was back in the early 2000s. read more