By South China Morning Post | Created at 2024-11-17 09:01:11 | Updated at 2024-11-17 11:48:36
2 hours ago
In China, young people are increasingly using social media to not only connect with friends, but to pay strangers to talk with them.
As society becomes more atomised, users on the social platform Xiaohongshu have begun using the hashtag “companion chat” to find others willing to buy or sell a few minutes of human conversation.
“Is anyone available to chat? I’ll pay whatever it takes,” read one recent post tagged with the hashtag. Within hours, the user had received dozens of replies from people offering their services.
The hashtag has racked up millions of views over the past couple of years, reflecting Chinese consumers’ growing willingness to spend money to stave off loneliness – part of a broader rise in what has been dubbed “emotional consumption”.
As the country’s single population skyrockets, more are turning to various forms of paid companionship – from chatting with strangers online to virtual role-playing games.
This burgeoning companionship economy is a “response to China’s changing demographics”, said Wang Pan, an associate professor in Chinese and Asian studies at the University of New South Wales, and the author of Love and Marriage in Globalizing China.
