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Cyberia—Internet
Cafes Eva Pascoe rides to work on a motorbike. Her business
wardrobe features such items as black leggings, furry leopard - skin jumpers ,a
faded denin jacket and biking leathers. She looks as if she might be a trendy
market manager, or someone who works the day shift in a student cafe. In fact
she is a very rich, very successful businesswoman. Pascoe’s
business base is in the city of London, not far from the uban loft space she
owns in a fashionable city residential area. But she is as likely to be found at
business meetings in Tokyo, New York or Paris. Al the age of 31, Pascoe is the
brain behind Cyberia, which she claims is the world’s first" cyberia
café." At Cyberia, experienced Internet surfers can play with
the latest cyber technology - Net virgins can learn how to log on - while
munching their way through what she describes as an "obscene nacho sandwich" or
any of the other dishes offered on the highly priced Cyberia menu.
Pascoe founded Cyberia with partner Gene Teare in September 1994. Since
then, the company has turned over approximately 5 million pounds. Before the end
of 1996 Pascoe intends to float the company on the stock market. Yet the venture
started out very modestly, in a small cafe behind London’s Tottenham Court Road.
The decor there is strictly lowly—stripped floors, distressed wails, ambient
music, funky art-yet it has turned into a global concept. Today, Cyberia cafes
can be found in the British cities of Manchester and Edinburgh, and in Paris,
Tokyo and New York. On the list for future Cyberia are Glasgow, Lisbon, San
Franciso, British, Moscow and Delhi. The company is diversifying
fast. Multimedia training and development sessions are held in the Trans Cyberia
and Sub-Cyberia basement venues beneath the cafes themselves. There is a range
of Cyberia designer accessories, such as T - shins and mousepads. The company
even boasts an online dating agency. The Cyberia magazine was launched early in
1996, while the world’s first online" television, station", Channel Cyberia,
launched in Britain in May. Cyberia Records - copies of Samples taken from the
Net, for use by DJs - is promised before, long. Pascoe is unstoppable, a
cyberspace version of the entrepreneur Richard Branson. She grew up in rigidly
communist Poland, but has made the transformation to free -wheeling business
entrepreneur with incredible ease. At first, however, the prospects for cyberia
did not look good. At the lunch of the first cafe, Pascoe spent most of her day
trying to buy an espresso machine that could make good coffee. "It was
incredibly disorganized, " says someone who worked there as a cyberhost. "There
was no proper Kitchen. Four out of the five company directors had other
jobs." Eighteen months on, many insiders say things are not much
changed. "It’s half- cocked," says Ivan Pope, who runs a nearby design agency.
"You never get served. The coffee’s always cold. It’s chaos. "In deed, many
industry analysis ale sceptical about Pascoe’s ambitions. "Cyberia is simply a
restaurant chain with a grimmick," says David Tabizel, director of a multimedia
company based in the city of London. Cybefia’s trick, however,
was to spot-before anyone else-that the Internet was about to turn into an
everyday resource. "They managed to capture the mysterious zeitgeist of where
people want to be, "says John Browning, editor - in - chief of Wired magazine.
The company had brilliant branding, too. "It’s a great name," says David
Tabizel, noting the play on words with Siberia, the vast, desolate region in the
north of Russia. Another advantage, say analysts, is the company’s decision not
to open clones of its original restau rant in each new location. Every Cyberia
is tailored to its city’s needs. It is doubtful that anything
would have come of the idea if Pascoe had not been behind it from the start. She
has been described variously as "weird and intense", "a magnificent self-
publicist"," very charismatic, very smart","a pioneer in integrating people and
technology"; "an evangelist for the Internet". She is, indeed, an unstoppable
force of nature. "I don’t need that much sleep," she says, in her slightly
broken English, downing another black coffee. "Around four or five hours is
enough for me." Possessions tie her down. "My security is my
knowledge....Because information changes so quickly and I get so much input from
the Net, I have to keep my home life simple. My apartment is full of white
walls... There’s nothing to distract me, "She gets online at 7 a. m. , works
weekends, is rarely home before mid night. She can’t remember her last holiday.
Even on weekend trips to see friends in Spain and get some sun she takes her
laptop. She has a contract for a Book on interfaces; she is trying to write up
her Ph, d, thesis on human computer interaction. "I don’t usually eat until the
evening, "she says. "I find it distracts my energy." Which one has not been developed at Cyberia according to the text
A.The Cyberia magazine. B.An online dating agency, C.Cyberia Records. D.Cyberia SuPermarket.