Though the seats at Touching Fish Internet Cafe were much more spacious than other internet cafes, there were still limits.

All a player needed when surfing the internet was a table and a chair. Even with enough space on both sides and behind to allow others to move freely, giving enough leeway, it would only take up four or five square meters at most.

While VR equipment could theoretically be used in a space of four or five square meters, this was only the basic space required for the game; the buffer zone was not included.

If it were in one’s own living room or study, five square meters would be enough because it was a private space and there was basically no need to worry about bumping into things or other people during the game.

But it was different in an internet cafe.

If the available area for two players was five square meters each, they could easily bump into each other because they were constantly moving and waving their arms, which would affect the gaming experience.

So, for safety’s sake, if it was to be converted into a VR experience area, partitions would have to be made, and the space would have to be larger than at home. The area really needed would be at least six or even seven square meters.

If the floor space of each device was increased by two square meters, wouldn't the number of customers the whole space could accommodate be much smaller?

Moreover, VR games were just a novelty for the moment and not a long-term solution. The real need of most customers was to play online games with their friends on computers.

The new VR game experience area at Touching Fish Internet Cafe would probably have a decent occupancy rate at the beginning, but would soon become deserted and forgotten after the initial craze.

People on the first floor wanted to play but there were no machines available; all the VR equipment on the second floor was empty, with no one playing.

How wonderful that scene would be!

Afterward, Pei Qian went to the sales area of Touching Fish Internet Cafe.

This was also the layout that had been decided upon in the earliest planning stages of Touching Fish Internet Cafe 1.0. This sales area was not large, with only four or five shelves, selling mostly gaming peripherals such as mice, keyboards, and gamepads.

After Touching Fish Internet Cafe developed the ROF assembly business, there were also some products such as graphics cards, memory, or ROF complete machines on sale and display here.

As far as Pei Qian knew, the peripherals here sold quite well!

Because Zhang Yuan was in charge of Touching Fish Internet Cafe before, and the recruited employees were also very knowledgeable about computers, the keyboards, mice, and headphones they chose were all classic models from well-known brands and were definitely good to use.

After the players came here, looked around, and tried them out, they felt they were very good and paid for them directly. Although they were more expensive than those sold online, most of the customers who could afford to spend money at Touching Fish Internet Cafe didn't care about the price difference.

After Touching Fish Internet Cafe became popular, the traffic was very high, and this had become a large source of income for Touching Fish Internet Cafe!

Pei Qian said, "All third-party products here, including keyboards, mice, headphones, etc., will be cleared out and no longer sold! We will only sell our own Tenda products."

"Of course, the original recommendation function should be retained. The store employees can still recommend peripherals such as keyboards and mice to customers, but after the recommendation, let the customers place orders online themselves. We will not earn this middleman's money."

In this way, Touching Fish Internet Cafe would lose another source of income.

Although there might be some profit after switching to Tenda's products, in general, Tenda currently had fewer products. Only a few items could be placed in this area, which could be said to be a significant reduction compared to the previous categories, and the sales would definitely decrease significantly.

Moreover, after the "professional sales team" led by Tian Mo was formed, Pei Qian would start arranging for the sales there to successively "occupy" all the sales areas of Touching Fish Internet Cafes, creating a deterrent effect on customers.

In this way, the income of Touching Fish Internet Cafe would definitely decrease!

Although it might not decrease by much, every little bit helps.

Now that so many stores of Touching Fish Internet Cafe had been opened, even if each store decreased a little, it would add up to a considerable number.

Xiao Peng frowned and thought seriously.

Obviously, he was interpreting the deep meaning in President Pei's words.

Xiao Peng was one of the earlier employees of Touching Fish Internet Cafe and had witnessed the entire process of the cafe turning losses into profits. Moreover, he had single-handedly handled the Touching Fish Internet Cafe 2.0 and 3.0 models, so it could be said that his understanding of the entire business model was very profound.

Obviously, he felt that there were some problems with President Pei's plan.

"President Pei, I understand very well that VR games are likely to be a major trend in the future development of games."

"But... the development of VR games is still too immature, and the number of players in the entire player base is not just one or two orders of magnitude smaller compared to computer players."

"The number of players interested in VR games is probably less than a fraction of the number of computer players."

"Of course, I agree with Touching Fish Internet Cafe opening a VR area, but is it really necessary to occupy the same amount of space as the computers? I think a 1:2 ratio would be about right, or even smaller."

Pei Qian smiled.

He knew that this Xiao Peng would not accept this loss-making plan so willingly.

But it didn't matter, President Pei had his own silver tongue waiting for these stubborn conservatives.

"You're right, the VR player base is indeed several orders of magnitude smaller compared to computer players."

"But... have you ever thought that it is precisely because of this reason that we should add more VR equipment?"

"Ah?" Xiao Peng was stunned and didn't react for a moment.

Pei Qian explained, "Five or even ten years ago, internet cafes were much more popular than they are now. Why? Because most players were relatively poor and couldn't afford high-end computers, so they couldn't get the best gaming experience, so they chose to go to internet cafes with their friends."

"Why has the entire internet cafe industry changed in recent years? Internet cafes are getting fewer and more refined, transforming from smoky, low-end internet cafes to elegant and comfortable high-end internet cafes?"

"It's because the functions that internet cafes perform are different now."

"Now everyone's economic level is higher, and more and more people have their own high-end computers, so the target audience of internet cafes is narrowing, and they have to change their business model."

Xiao Peng nodded, agreeing with this point.

Obviously, this was precisely one of the key reasons why Touching Fish Internet Cafe could stand out among a crowd of internet cafe brands: it was the first brand to create high-end internet cafes, leading the entire market by a year or two.

Pei Qian continued, "In the future, internet cafes may not disappear, but their attribute of simply being used for playing games will definitely become increasingly diluted. Moreover, in recent years, there has also been a trend of the gradual decline of online games and the rapid rise of mobile games, which makes the situation of internet cafes even more difficult."

"The VR game player base is indeed relatively small, but have you ever thought that it is precisely because VR is a new thing and there are relatively few players willing to buy VR glasses that they are more inclined to come to internet cafes to experience it? And configuring a large number of VR glasses in Touching Fish Internet Cafe, so that the enthusiasm of players to try it out can be satisfied as much as possible, will allow the entire VR player base to expand faster?"

Pei Qian's expression was serious, and he spoke as if it were true.

In fact, he was very clear in his heart that this should be a business model that was not very feasible in his memory. At least those high-end internet cafes he remembered didn't have the operation of replacing half of the computers in the entire internet cafe with VR glasses.

But it didn't matter, this didn't affect him from talking nonsense to fool Xiao Peng.

Pei Qian firmly believed that with his powerful ability to fool people and his acting skills, coupled with his aura as the helmsman of Tenda Group, he would definitely be able to arrange Xiao Peng clearly and make him fully accept this decision in the end.

Sure enough, after thinking deeply, Xiao Peng revealed a look of sudden realization.

"So that's how it is!"

"The success of Touching Fish Internet Cafe is because it has insight into the development law of the entire internet cafe industry and walks ahead of all its peers; and now when a large number of high-end internet cafes are emerging and competition is fierce, we must once again take a big step forward and once again walk ahead of all our peers!"

"At that time, the VR experience area will be a core selling point that distinguishes us from other internet cafes!"

"President Pei is indeed far-sighted!"

After suddenly seeing the light, Xiao Peng suddenly thought of some ideas: "President Pei, if that's the case, I have a suggestion."

"We can change all the computer desks and monitors on the second floor into foldable ones. The host can be placed on a shelf above the head, and the mouse, keyboard, headphones, head-mounted displays, etc. can all be hung up, and the chairs can also be foldable."

"In this way, in the folded state, players will have enough space to experience VR content, and in the state where the desk and stool are unfolded, players can also play computer games normally."

Pei Qian: "..."

You're really a clever little devil!

Obviously, Xiao Peng's plan was a more moderate one. Although the entire VR experience area was mainly for experiencing VR, it could also be used for normal internet access and playing games.

This was equivalent to putting on insurance. When the VR craze faded, players could still come back to play computer games.

Pei Qian smiled in his heart.

Xiao Peng ah Xiao Peng, actually, if you hadn't told me, but had secretly done it yourself, I definitely wouldn't have been able to do anything about it afterward.

But you've told me now, doesn't that allow me to take precautions in advance?

Pei Qian thought for a moment and immediately said, "Of course not!"

"It shouldn't be a big problem to make the monitors and computer desks foldable. But if the chairs are also made foldable, it will definitely be uncomfortable to sit on!"

"Even if foldable chairs are designed well, it is difficult to compare them with special ergonomic chairs, gaming chairs, or single sofas, because the premise of folding must be that comfort will be sacrificed."

"We want to give players the most perfect experience, we can't make do with it like this."

Xiao Peng thought for a moment: "Uh... President Pei, what you said makes sense, this is really inappropriate."

"But, even when playing VR games, a host is needed, right? After all, those large VR games are calculated on the host. And when opening the game platform or searching for content, you still need to use the keyboard, mouse, and monitor."

"Even if you don't want the seats, these can't be saved, right?"

Pei Qian thought for a moment, and that was really the case.

With the current technical level and content of VR headsets, it is impossible to completely replace PCs. A lot of content needs to be set up on the PC first before you can put on the headset to experience it.

VR all-in-one machines can only run VR games that are about the same size as mobile games. Those large games still have to rely on computers to calculate.

So the display, host, keyboard, and mouse are still essential.