With the advent of 5G, will the future of commercial Wi-Fi be a setback or a step forward?

Entering the Internet age, the Internet allows people to communicate with others, entertain, shop, and other activities without leaving their homes. People are becoming more and more dependent on the Internet. Internet outages are even more unbearable than water and food outages. Many people also joke that this generation of young people are "alien people who can't live without the Internet." Many operators seized this business opportunity to create commercial Wi-Fi. Once upon a time, Internet giants fought vigorously for this Wi-Fi traffic entrance. Internet giants such as Alipay and Tencent joined the battle. Now that the smoke has dissipated and the 5G era is about to come, what will the future of commercial Wi-Fi be like? Let's find out together.

[[225637]]

According to CNNIC data, as of December 2017, the number of Chinese netizens continued to grow, exceeding 772 million, with an Internet penetration rate of 55.8%; among them, the number of mobile netizens reached 753 million, and the proportion of netizens using mobile phones to access the Internet increased from 95.1% at the end of 2016 to 97.5%. The proportion of mobile netizens accessing the Internet through Wi-Fi wireless networks has exceeded 91.8%. Wi-Fi has become the most popular way for netizens to access the Internet.

Initially, based on the value of Wi-Fi as a traffic entry point, some businesses began to test the waters by providing basic Internet access services to customers in order to achieve the purpose of attracting traffic to the store. This kind of Wi-Fi laid for commercial purposes is referred to as commercial Wi-Fi, and it is also its early form. Gradually, the demand for commercial Wi-Fi has increased, and businesses are not only satisfied with the simplest Internet access function. Where there is demand, there is a market, so a group of commercial Wi-Fi operators were born, providing commercial Wi-Fi coverage services for businesses in various industries, as well as corresponding hardware equipment, software platforms and application services, allowing more businesses to join the commercial Wi-Fi ecosystem.

Now, commercial Wi-Fi hotspots cover most cities across the country and have become an important part of public Wi-Fi. The latest commercial Wi-Fi data report, iResearch's 2016 report, shows that by the end of 2016, the number of commercial Wi-Fi hotspots is expected to reach 1.3431 million, compared to only 63,000 at the end of 2013, a 22-fold increase in three years.

However, as the market continues to change, 5G will enter the market, communication operators will reduce tariffs, and launch preferential Internet packages. Does this mean that the future of commercial Wi-Fi is not optimistic, and it will become a commercial chicken rib that is a pity to abandon and tasteless to eat? On this issue, the view of commercial Wi-Fi operator Wei Dangjia is: although commercial Wi-Fi will be affected to a certain extent by 5G and operators' reduction of tariffs, this does not mean that commercial Wi-Fi will gradually decline. On the contrary, commercial Wi-Fi has developed into a mature product system. It not only solves the problem of users' Internet access, but also solves the problems of merchant operation, customer management, promotion, etc. As a technical tool, it provides merchants with operational assistance. In the new retail era, it is also an indispensable part of merchants' transformation to new retail.

[[225638]]

New retail has high requirements for basic network services. Some media described Amazon's unmanned retail store Amazon Go as follows: "Amazon Go may be the store with the most sensors on the planet. Every box on the ceiling is a camera connected to a deep learning algorithm, which is used to analyze people's every move." Sensors need to be connected through the network. So many sensors require a high-performance basic network architecture to provide network support. Commercial Wi-Fi is an important choice in the construction of new retail infrastructure. It is cost-effective. After all, the price of Wi-Fi chips is lower than that of 4G and 5G chips. Wi-Fi and mobile networks are actually complementary to each other. For new retail, the advantage of Wi-Fi is that Wi-Fi signals can achieve full coverage, no dead ends, and stable traffic to ensure network fluency.

[[225639]]

As mobile network technology continues to innovate and increase in value, the potential value of commercial Wi-Fi is also being explored, empowering businesses and meeting the current needs of the commercial market. Various commercial Wi-Fi operators are actively launching their own solutions, especially for new retail. Take Weidangjia and Maiwandi as examples:

Weidangjia has launched a complete set of new business solutions including smart Wi-Fi construction, intelligent scene equipment, new business platforms, interactive marketing, etc. to help merchants transform into new retail; based on its own million+ Wi-Fi hotspots, it has launched new media services to provide merchants with accurate and effective external traffic diversion services, including public account fan diversion, mini-program promotion, and interactive marketing services.

Maiwei Di provides integrated intelligent business solutions that combine software and hardware to empower offline businesses, especially focusing on providing two hardware products for new retail: the artificial intelligence-based multi-sensor commercial router "Maichuang Router" and the full-scenario commercial terminal "Maixiang Zhanggui".

Since its birth, commercial Wi-Fi has always served businesses, created value, and brought customers a convenient experience other than surfing the Internet. As long as there is business, it has value. In the future, it will complement 5G rather than compete with it, making it easier for people to surf the Internet and bringing more imagination to businesses.