Wi-Fi Master Key connects users to any China Mobile hot spot
Wi-Fi Master Key, a mobile app developed in China that provides users with usernames and passwords to log into public networks, raised $50 million in a series A funding round.
Fortune reports on the funding, citing a source at Northern Light Venture Capital, which apparently invested in Wi-Fi Master Key.
The app, which has an astonishing 270 million monthly users, provides the user with login information for China Mobile hot spots; China Mobile is the largest of the three state-sanctioned telcos in China and provides near blanket coverage in most major Chinese cities.
Cynthia Meng, Hong Kong-based analyst for Jefferies, told Fortune that Wi-Fi Master Key was the 21st most popular app in China in March.
“China cynics might think that a business model that looks like brazen theft is a pretty good summary of the country’s whole business model in the tech sphere,” the report stated. “The reality is somewhat more nuanced. … Wi-Fi has been assiduously promoted as a public good by the powers-that-be, and China Mobile is, after all, a state-controlled (if publicly listed) company. Wi-Fi Master Key would argue it just helps to deliver that public good by getting round an infuriating bureaucratic.”
Last year China Mobile spent nearly $3 billion on deployment of Wi-Fi hot spots but, like many other telcos, has struggled to monetize the network.
