A whining girlfriend is just a click away
Print Edition
In China鈥檚 online hostessing world, men find company while the women find riches.
Student Xiao Yue, 21, spends four hours most days chatting online with fans who shower her with virtual roses and other presents.
She is one of more than 10,000 hostesses on bobo.com, a live platform where anyone can record themselves singing, playing piano, dancing or just chatting.
The hostesses are predominantly singers, playing to an audience that is 90 percent male, and mostly between the ages of 20 and 35. Acting cute is OK. Anything explicitly sexual is not.
Xiao鈥檚 speciality is to sajiao 鈥 a very Chinese type of flirting characterized by the woman acting in a cutesy childlike manner and speaking in a whiny voice. She puts on little dance mime routines one minute, seductively eats strawberries the next.
In return, users show their appreciation by sending her virtual gifts, which can be worth as much as thousands of yuan.
She admits many who have not used the service may find it hard to understand.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 know each other but as time goes on, there鈥檚 this indescribable feeling. They really support you, and their support improves your self-esteem... Perhaps people who don鈥檛 normally use this service won鈥檛 be able to understand the feeling.鈥
For Zhu Peihua, who says he doesn鈥檛 have enough money to get a girlfriend, it鈥檚 all about companionship.
鈥淎fter finishing work, except for watching TV, films or just lying in bed, playing computer games and so on, there isn鈥檛 a real person talking to you. But with this... this is a real person. You can interact with them. I have someone who will talk to me.鈥
Xiao can sometimes make more than 10,000 yuan (US$1,600) a month getting users like Zhu to send gifts.
There are about 50 Internet companies in China running video chat services. The platforms typically take between 50 and 70 percent of the money donated by users.
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