As the usage of smartphones and tablet devices grow, internet cafés are fast becoming the collateral damage in the quest to get China online, the Financial Times reported. The report said these cyber cafés were once the focal social point for the country's twentysomething population and a convenient method for authorities to check the online activity of its citizens.

However, the growing popularity of affordable smartphones and tablets have reached the point that has internet café owners worrying about their growing irrelevance to a lot of Chinese in the same that video rental shops were in the US and Europe, the report said. One of these owners who only goes by the name of Mr. Liu, was quoted in the report as saying, "Several years ago, we were able to get tens of thousands of [renminbi] a day, but now we are only able to earn several thousand." His internet café, which has 30 computers, is located in the central Chaoyangmen district of Beijing.

Citing research by China-based social networking and gaming firm Tencent, the report said the number of internet cafes in China had dropped from 2011 to 2012 after it had growing steadily since 2004. Data is not yet available for this year, but last year, there were 10,000 cyber cafes that shuttered for good. This leaves China with only 136,000 licensed cafes, the report said.

The report said the plunge in the number of cafés came at a time smartphone use has increased. Data from market research firm Canalys said that the percentage of Chinese with smartphones has more than doubled from 20% last year to close to half in 2013. Meanwhile, the brokerage CLSA said the use of home broadband has increased threefold to 191 million last year compared to the number five years ago.

Although internet café owners see this as an unwelcome development, the report said it is good news for users since authorities often use cafes to track the online behavior of the residents, the report stated.