Infographic: Students practice popular e-sports games in class in the e-sports education center of Changchun Health Vocational College.
BEIJING, March 3 (Zhongxin.com) -- Every time he travels, Wang Junyue will pay a higher price than ordinary hotels to stay in e-sports hotels.
Here, he can enjoy high-speed broadband, large-screen monitors, professional headsets, and gaming tables and chairs. Whether it is teaming up with friends to "open the dark" or occasionally working overtime to deal with work, Wang Junyue feels more convenient than ordinary hotels.
Nowadays, there are more and more young people like Wang Junyue. Internet cafes are no longer their first choice for gaming, and e-sports hotels with better equipment and more comfortable environments are favored by young people.
Data map: The Hangzhou Asian Games e-sports venue is lit up at night, and the colorful light bar on the roof is like a star track. Photo by China News Agency reporter Wang Gang
An industry that grows wildly
According to Wang Junyue's recollection, the first time he knew about esports hotels was in 2021.
He remembers that on the day of the League of Legends S11 final, his college roommate invited him to a newly opened e-sports hotel in Beijing's East Fourth Ring Road to watch the game together. "We haven't been together for a long time, and witnessing EDG win at an esports hotel is like going back to college."
In recent years, this kind of leisure and entertainment venue derived from e-sports has become a nationwide boom.
In November 2022, the "11 E-sports Hotel Market Research Report" jointly released by the China Tourism Hotel Industry Association and Tongcheng Travel showed that the domestic e-sports hotel market has maintained a steady growth momentum in the past two years, and the number of e-sports hotels in the country is expected to exceed 2022,2023 by 2.
"Specialized e-sports hotels and ordinary e-sports hotels (ordinary hotels with e-sports-themed room types) are the main formats of the current domestic e-sports hotel market." The report said.
In fact, since the birth of e-sports hotels, in just a few years, they have undergone many upgrades.
From the first traditional hotel with a few computers, to later dividing rooms according to popular games. Nowadays, some e-sports hotels have also innovated richer consumption scenarios. For example, e-sports hotel + escape room, e-sports hotel + script kill + takeaway, e-sports hotel + game IP, etc.
Data map: In the 2021 China International Fair for Trade in Services Cultural Tourism Service Special Exhibition Area, games and e-sports have attracted attention. The picture shows the Glory of Kings KPL competition trophy at Tencent's e-sports booth attracting visitors. Photo by Jiang Qiming, reporter of China News Agency
The "hidden corner" behind the popularity
However, while the number of esports hotels is growing steadily, there is also a shocking chaos behind it.
In 2022, the Supreme People's Procuratorate announced eight typical cases of special actions for legal supervision of the protection of minors, one of which was a civil public interest lawsuit filed by the People's Procuratorate of Suqian City, Jiangsu Province against Z E-sports Hotel.
The facts of the case show that local e-sports hotels accept minors with unlimited Internet access, and there are many cases of multiple people in one room, others opening on behalf of others, and mixed living between men and women. In order to pay the high fees for staying in e-sports hotels, some minors even commit illegal crimes such as theft.
After the local administrative authorities carried out special governance, Hotel Z continued to accept minors and provide them with Internet services without obtaining an Internet access service business license, and adopted circumvention measures such as not registering minors to avoid inspection.
Article 21 of the Regulations on the Administration of Internet Access Service Business Sites clearly stipulates that Internet access service business establishments must not accept minors into business premises. Internet access service business sites shall hang signs prohibiting minors from entering in a conspicuous position at the entrance of the business premises.
However, esports hotels offer both accommodation and internet access. As a new business format and new thing, there is still a lack of corresponding management regulations.
Infographic: In the e-sports education center of Changchun Health Vocational College, students practice popular e-sports games in class, while teachers teach game operation skills on the side. Photo by Zhang Yao, reporter of China News Agency
Three departments to standardize
In order to effectively strengthen the protection of minors in e-sports hotels and promote the healthy and orderly development of the industry, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Ministry of Public Security and the Office of the Leading Group for the Protection of Minors under the State Council recently studied and drafted the Notice of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Office of the State Council Leading Group for the Protection of Minors in E-sports Hotels (Draft for Comments), and publicly solicited comments.
The Draft clarifies the format attributes of e-sports hotels, defining e-sports hotels as new accommodation formats that provide e-sports entertainment services to consumers by setting up e-sports rooms, including professional e-sports hotels where all rooms are e-sports rooms and non-professional e-sports hotels that use some rooms to open e-sports room areas.
According to the Draft for Comments, although it is not recommended to characterize e-sports hotels as Internet access service business places, "e-sports hotels are generally considered by society to be places that are not suitable for minors' activities, and the supervision of e-sports hotels to receive minors must be strengthened", which has become a regulatory consensus.
The Draft for Comments clarifies: "It is strictly forbidden for professional e-sports hotels and non-professional e-sports hotels to accept minors." (End)