When it comes to the WiFi master key, I think many people still remember it, after all, as a "rubbing network artifact", it has really swept the country before, and even at its peak, the number of users is comparable to the "national social software" WeChat.
However, the brilliance of this software was short-lived, and in the years since, it has lost a large number of users and fallen off the altar.
What kind of ups and downs has the WiFi master key experienced over the years?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="9" >01: The Road to The Gods</h1>
More than ten years ago, when the popularity of smart phones was not long ago, the Internet has not yet matured, in a transitional period, and therefore, the high tariffs and slow speed of wireless networks often bother mobile phone users.
Therefore, when many people are on the Internet, in order to save the poor hundreds of megabytes of traffic on their mobile phones, they will generally choose to connect to WiFi at home.
At the same time, for those who do not have WiFi at home, or who are away from home, they will choose to connect to other people's WiFi to rub the network.
However, this also gives rise to a new problem, that is, other people's WiFi is generally protected by passwords, if the average person is not familiar with the owner of WiFi, can not ask for the password, and I do not have superb IT technology to crack, it can only be fruitless.
This seems to be a somewhat comical dilemma, but many people at the time were deeply aware of it.
So in this case, the WiFi master key of Shangwang Network was born in 2012.
When users use the WiFi Master Key, they don't need to pay, just turn on their own traffic first, and then they can get the information about the free Wi-Fi hotspots around them and crack it to connect.
In this way, because of many advantages such as free, rubbing the net, and easy to use, the WiFi master key became a hit.
In only 2 years on the shelves, this software has successfully gained 500 million users, and the fission is amazing. You know, even if it is Pinduoduo and Kuaishou, it took four years and six years to achieve such achievements.
By the end of 2014, the monthly active users of WiFi Master Key had exceeded 230 million, and the average daily hotspot connection had exceeded the 1.7 billion mark. The following year, WiFi Master Key was no longer satisfied with the domestic market, and began to expand overseas, soon covering more than 200 countries and regions around the world.
By 2016, WiFi Master Key was at the peak of development, with the total number of users at home and abroad exceeding 900 million, and ranking fifth in the global comprehensive download list. According to statistics, the software's advertising revenue alone exceeded 1.5 billion yuan that year, which can be described as unlimited scenery.
From the shelf to the peak, the WiFi master key only took four years, and its example also tells people that in the Internet industry, if you can accurately grasp the pain points of customers and meet the needs of users, the development of the enterprise is likely to flourish, or even soar.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="55" >02: Boom and bust</h1>
Previously, in 2016, the number of monthly active users of Wifi Master Key has exceeded 500 million, but in the development since then, this data has not risen but declined.
In the September 2020 Analysys Qianfan report, the figure has fallen to 300 million, which obviously means that wifi master key users are rapidly losing.
In just a few years, why has the once popular Wifi Master Key dropped so much in popularity?
First of all, the first reason is that the security of the Wifi Master Key has been questioned.
In March 2018, CCTV's "Economic Half Hour" column conducted in-depth reports on the safety hazards of wifi master keys. Since then, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has also spoken out about this, reminding users to use "rubbing the net" tools cautiously.
After the incident, Shangwang Network immediately responded, saying that it apologized for the trouble caused by users, and will continue to optimize the product after that, while also making a commitment: if there is a user who causes property damage due to the use of Wifi Master Key, it can make a claim.
Objectively speaking, the response of Shangwang Network is very timely, but it is undeniable that the cloud of security risks has hung over the Wifi Master Key.
In addition to security risks, the second reason for the weakening of wifi master keys is that the services provided by its software are controversial.
In the final analysis, "rubbing the network" without the consent of the Wifi owner is not a legal act and has been suspected of infringing on the resources of other users. There is a related case in Heilongjiang, where a resident found that his network was rubbed, resulting in an increase in costs, so he chose to call the police.
In the end, after investigation, the police found three men who used the software to rub the net and demanded compensation for the user.
Therefore, many people began to question the WiFi master key, but on this issue, the WiFi master key avoided the two statements of "cracking" and "rubbing the network", but defined its own service as "sharing", because when the user uses the software, there is a clause of "agreeing to share WiFi".
In any case, security risks and network disputes have affected the development of WiFi master keys to a certain extent, but in the market, there are not many software with the above problems, so the decline of the software inevitably has more critical factors.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="59" >03: Abandoned by the times</h1>
In fact, the most critical reason for the WiFi master key to pass through is still in the traffic problem.
As we all know, for this software, whether it is the initial appearance, or the glory of the past, it is mainly based on the fact that the majority of user traffic is not enough.
However, with the development of the Internet, major operators have also begun to speed up and reduce fees, and eventually the traffic has become the "cabbage price", with packages as little as 10GB and more than unlimited.
At the same time, people are away from home, in most occasions, can get the public password of WiFi, it is this series of changes, slowly make wiFi master key this tool software useless.
Faced with difficulties, WiFi Master Key has also begun to choose to transform, from the original single tool software to the development of information platforms. However, the final transformation results are not satisfactory, and many users react to the low quality of the information content on the software, even vulgar.
Nowadays, in first- and second-tier cities, WiFi master keys are increasingly marginalized, and even in third- and fourth-tier cities, user maintenance is facing difficulties.
In April of this year, there was even news that the WiFi Master Key might be acquired.
In the report, 360 company is very interested in this software and wants to negotiate an acquisition with Shangwang Network, but due to differences between the two sides on the price issue, they ultimately failed to reach an agreement.
Since neither company responded after the report came out, the authenticity of the acquisition news is not yet certain, but it is irrefutable that today's WiFi Master Key is much worse than before.
Looking back at the past, WiFi master key has risen due to the high cost of traffic, and it has also declined due to the decline in traffic.
However, this is the case in the current Internet industry, and the needs of users are often not static, and more often, they are dynamically changing with the development of science and technology.
This change may be both an opportunity and a dilemma for enterprises, but more critically, enterprises themselves should make changes to adapt to new market demands in order to avoid the risk of being eliminated.
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Author: Xiang Nan