China Mobile Monternet (SP Business)

Cause

In November 2000, amidst the bursting dot-com bubble when major internet companies were struggling to find monetization avenues, China Mobile officially launched the "Monternet" (Mobile Internet) project. It was a revolutionary and highly open business model: China Mobile provided the network infrastructure and the billing system, allowing third-party Service Providers (SPs) to offer value-added services like SMS, MMS, and ringtones to mobile users. The revenue generated was split, with China Mobile taking 15% and the SPs keeping a generous 85%.

Process

This policy effectively meant China Mobile granted the public the privilege to directly deduct money from users' phone bills. Instantly, countless shell companies and grassroots entrepreneurs flooded the SP industry. All they needed was to secure an SP license from a local carrier, set up a few servers, and hire people to write borderline-inappropriate jokes, horoscopes, fortune-telling messages, or crop pop songs into ringtones. They then aggressively advertised on newspapers and TV: "Send SMS XX to XXXX to get your daily horoscope, only 2 RMB/month." Because this was the 2G era and SMS was the primary form of mobile entertainment, coupled with the fact that many SPs used deceptive marketing or even forced "stealth subscriptions," hundreds of millions of users were unknowingly charged massive fees.

Result

The SP business didn't just single-handedly save major portals like Sina, NetEase, and Sohu from the brink of delisting and bankruptcy; it also fueled the craziest wave of "grassroots wealth creation" in Chinese internet history. Countless previously penniless entrepreneurs performed miracles, making millions or even tens of millions of RMB a month, relying on nothing but a few funny text messages and stealth-billing code. It wasn't until a few years later, when user complaints reached a boiling point, that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and China Mobile initiated a ruthless, sweeping crackdown. Massive numbers of non-compliant SP licenses were revoked, finally bringing down the curtain on this wild, highly controversial, and absurdly profitable era.

🚀 Time Traveler's Playbook (How to Exploit This)

• 🎯 Target Acquisition: Mobile phone users who want horoscopes, jokes, and ringtones sent via SMS.
• 🛠️ Core Operation: Register an "SP" (Service Provider) company and sign a revenue-sharing agreement with China Mobile's "Monternet."
• 💰 Profit & Extraction: Blast users with subscription SMS texts charging $0.50/month. Due to lax early regulations, users were automatically billed. This loophole created China's first generation of internet billionaires before it was heavily regulated.