HEADLINES
JOBS
COM:PORT
POLICY POLICE
ARCHIVES

Kingfisher Net Express Cyber Pub launched

Launched by the UB Group, the Cyber Pub (as opposed to the several cyber cafés) would be India's first cyber pub and discotheque.

The Cyber Pub will offer consumers a chance to unwind and surf the Net while downing a bottle of Kingfisher and shaking a leg.

T O D A Y

• The Missing Pages • India's first Cyber Pub • Karnataka takes stock • C-DAC bags orders

The Indian Express Group, with whom the UB Group has tied up for the novel venture, will provide the lease line as well as the hardware for Internet connectivity.

The Cyber Pub will initially have ten terminals. To be located on Residency Road, the home to countless pubs, it hopes to draw in hordes of software engineers with bulging disposable incomes. It also has an eye on some more esoteric kinds, which are not found at the cyber cafés: young executives, journalists, the advertising crowd; in short, a more mature clientele.

UB Group Breweries Division CEO Kalyan Ganguly says they are looking at "an audience which not only wants to drink Kingfisher but is also looking for information''.

According to Ganguly, the Cyber Pub represents "an investment in an idea''. Cyber pubs are slated for launch in Bombay, Delhi and Calcutta. UB is also looking at launching them in infotech savvy cities like Pune and Hyderabad.

The company will also simultaneously launch a promotional blitz for the pub using outdoor media, press and banners said Deepak Chaudhri, the divisional vice-president, sales and marketing, Breweries Division, UB Group.

Cyber cafés, which charge about Rs 60 per hour, give the surfers a cup free. As the law prohibits beer from being served free of cost, UB is planning on offering discounts. Time slots for use of terminals will be in half-hour packages, but if one were to book, say one hour of surfing time, a discount on the beer bill would be at hand.

The concept has been in the works for a while now. The Indian Express Group had approached the UB Group with the idea. But getting the lease line took a while and now UB executives are hopeful that everything will be in place.

UB Group executives are unwilling to quantify the cost of setting up the cyber pub. As the Bangalore cyber pub will be a franchisee outfit, the costs to UB will be mainly in terms of doing the interiors.

Earlier: The Web's on the house

- Compiled from the Indian media

Tell us what you think of this story