Wang Wenzi is a year-old college student from the scenic southern Chinese city of Hangzhou. By day, she goes to class and hangs out with friends.
She meets them through a mobile platform called kuai lai zu wo, or Quick Come Rent Me, the latest Chinese start-up to walk a fine line between social network and illegal sex service. That includes apps that present a real danger for prostitution, even rape. The Chinese government has been engaged in a long-running campaign against online pornography.
Quick Come Rent Me, like dozens of similar services, operates through a public account on mobile app WeChat, a widely-used chat service that also acts as a platform for other applications. More recently, the renting business has become a more regular part of socializing and dating, and startups in this space have even earned funding from angel investors.
These activities are not necessarily as innocuous as they sound, and platforms often advertise their services using coded language the dangles the possibility of sex. Users registering a profile to rent themselves out do undergo a verification process, and some profiles are not approved.
The platform allows, but does not require, that users upload their IDs for real-name authentication. And some start-ups, he added, are more lax at the beginning as they try to build a user base. Scrutiny on apps like Quick Come Rent Me is likely to grow. Prostitution and pornography are technically illegal in China, although hair salons and massage parlors that double as brothels are common, not to mention obvious. Chinese authorities make periodic efforts to enforce the bans by arresting sex workers and clients, closing venues, and shutting down websites that post obscene content.
