China Mobile's Monternet Officially Shut Down, Once Had 100 Million Users at Its Peak
According to a China Mobile announcement, five products including Monternet's all-network short message service, He Sheng Huo (and Life), and MobileMarket have officially been taken offline and related services stopped as of 24:00 on April 30th. Among them, Monternet's all-network short message service was the last core business still operating under the "Monternet" system. This shutdown signifies the official exit of China Mobile's "Monternet" from the historical stage.
Monternet was born in 2000 and was a mobile data business brand launched by China Mobile during the transition from 2G to 2.5G, with the English name Monternet (Mobile+Internet).
In the era of feature phones, it was once one of the main entry points for mobile phone users to access the internet.
Back then, Monternet integrated services such as SMS, MMS, WAP browsing, and early mobile games, building one of the earliest mobile internet ecosystems in China, and also spurred the rapid development of the SP/CP value-added business model.
At its peak, its monthly active user base was close to 100 million, and its influence was not to be underestimated.
However, with the popularization of smartphones and the evolution of 3G, 4G, and even 5G networks, users gradually shifted to app stores and various native Apps, and WAP portals and related businesses rapidly declined.
In recent years, the Monternet system has continued to shrink and gradually faded from mainstream view.
From an entry point in the era of feature phones to a "marginal role" in the era of smartphones, the curtain call of Monternet is more like a natural result of technological evolution.
The memories of SMS and WAP it carries ultimately remain in that era belonging to 2G.