A Chinese startup raised $770K USD for ‘Uber for escorts’ app
- 8 years ago
CHINA — A Chinese startup raised $770 thousand USD for an app that is being called the “Uber for Escorts.”
Hangzhou Ouch Technology Ltd.’s app 杭州哎呦科技有限公司/来租我, loosely translated to “Come Rent Me,” offers people a chance to connect by renting each other’s time. An angel investor has contributed 5 million RMB (about $770 thousand USD) to fund the app.
Like Tinder or the Chinese social media app Momo, Come Rent Me connects its users through the app’s WeChat function. People can meet and rent themselves to strangers and vice versa to do things like go to the movies, go jogging, grab dinner, explore ancient towns or whatever their hearts desire. The difference with Come Rent Me is everything you do is paid on an hourly basis and varies from 1 to 200 RMB per hour (about $0.15 to $30.70 USD).
When a user on Come Rent Me wants to rent someone, they pay upfront for the number of hours they want to rent. The user will then receive a text with the WeChat ID of their selected person. After making contact through WeChat, the person renting out their time has the opportunity to reject their client, in which case the client gets a full refund. Otherwise, the two can arrange a time to meet.
Co-founder of the app Yulong Fan (范宇龙) said the app was created in part because young people don’t want to go out anymore, and why not get paid for going out?
“Between going to and from work, most people either stay at home by themselves or play games,” he said. “We’re not a community platform. We’re running an information service. No matter what you do, whether it’s meeting someone or completing a task, you have a cost.”
Fan compares Come Rent Me to Uber and a similar Chinese taxi service Didi Chuxing.
“When Didi and Uber started, they wanted to enable individuals to make money outside of their day jobs,” he said. “Now, Uber and Didi have transformed the free time of individuals, and have made private cars acceptable.”
Fan went as far as to compare Come Rent Me’s function to that of paying consultants and lawyers. But the company faces Chinese regulations around sex. In China, prostitution and porn are illegal, and media is often censored for “inappropriate” content.
But according to Fan, Come Rent Me is strict on who is renting and what they’re renting. Unfortunately, preventing illicit activity from happening is almost impossible once users meet offline.
Hangzhou Ouch Technology Ltd.’s app 杭州哎呦科技有限公司/来租我, loosely translated to “Come Rent Me,” offers people a chance to connect by renting each other’s time. An angel investor has contributed 5 million RMB (about $770 thousand USD) to fund the app.
Like Tinder or the Chinese social media app Momo, Come Rent Me connects its users through the app’s WeChat function. People can meet and rent themselves to strangers and vice versa to do things like go to the movies, go jogging, grab dinner, explore ancient towns or whatever their hearts desire. The difference with Come Rent Me is everything you do is paid on an hourly basis and varies from 1 to 200 RMB per hour (about $0.15 to $30.70 USD).
When a user on Come Rent Me wants to rent someone, they pay upfront for the number of hours they want to rent. The user will then receive a text with the WeChat ID of their selected person. After making contact through WeChat, the person renting out their time has the opportunity to reject their client, in which case the client gets a full refund. Otherwise, the two can arrange a time to meet.
Co-founder of the app Yulong Fan (范宇龙) said the app was created in part because young people don’t want to go out anymore, and why not get paid for going out?
“Between going to and from work, most people either stay at home by themselves or play games,” he said. “We’re not a community platform. We’re running an information service. No matter what you do, whether it’s meeting someone or completing a task, you have a cost.”
Fan compares Come Rent Me to Uber and a similar Chinese taxi service Didi Chuxing.
“When Didi and Uber started, they wanted to enable individuals to make money outside of their day jobs,” he said. “Now, Uber and Didi have transformed the free time of individuals, and have made private cars acceptable.”
Fan went as far as to compare Come Rent Me’s function to that of paying consultants and lawyers. But the company faces Chinese regulations around sex. In China, prostitution and porn are illegal, and media is often censored for “inappropriate” content.
But according to Fan, Come Rent Me is strict on who is renting and what they’re renting. Unfortunately, preventing illicit activity from happening is almost impossible once users meet offline.