MANILA, Philippines -- Despite closing several stores last year, Netopia sees further business through franchising its Internet café brand in the provinces.

In an interview, George Tan, president of Digital Paradise Inc. (DPI), said the company was forced to close down several stores that were unprofitable. From as high as 208 stores, there are now about 175 company-owned Netopia branches. DPI operates the Netopia chain.

Among those that were closed down was the company-owned EGG store in Glorietta Mall in Quezon City, which was geared more toward gaming.

?Gaming contributes less than 15 percent of total revenues. Internet usage is still the main revenue earner,? Tan said.

Gaming is becoming a less profitable market for Netopia due to the proliferation of small neighborhood Internet café s that normally target gamers.

Nonetheless, Tan said closing down stores has allowed Netopia to streamline its overhead costs.

?In fact, our revenues last year were up by some five percent from the previous year," Tan said, quoting total revenues of about $350 million.

To generate new revenue streams, Netopia is counting on partnerships with content providers to drive Internet usage in its stores.

Netopia announced a tie-up with e-learning provider Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) in offering prepaid Web-based courses in its stores. Users can buy credits worth P300 to P500 in Netopia branches per course and log on to www.calnook.com.

Netopia has similar partnerships with companies that provide English-learning and nursing review exams online.

?We believe the opportunity is in the provinces. We don?t have presence yet in Palawan and also in Zamboanga, where there are a lot of nurses,? Tan said.