TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Would you pay $1,500 to rent a boyfriend for Chinese New Year?
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Reuters reports that there are five major date-hiring apps in China. The most popular one being Hire Me Plz.
(Shutterstock/File)
C
hina is seeing a rise in “rent-a-girlfriend/boyfriend” apps as the Lunar New Year comes tomorrow. Yup, these apps do exist.
Reuters reports that there are five major date-hiring apps in China. The most popular one being Hire Me Plz. (Did a teenager think of this name?) It’s also found that singletons would ask for ¥1 to ¥10,000—you do the math—just to be someone’s SO for an hour to a day. These payments entails them to either a chat, a date, a game of mahjong, or a foot massage.
According to the media outfit, these singletons turn to these apps “to appease their parents” during the Lunar New Year.
(Read also: Celebrate year of the rooster at these modern Chinese restaurants)
“Our business model is still new, though an increasing number of young people have accepted the idea of selling their time as commodity,” Cao Tiantian, Hire Me Plz founder, tells Reuters.
You might be thinking that this is a form of prostitution, but these services don’t involve sexual activities. Chinese laws also don’t have prohibitions against date rentals.
This article appeared on the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post
