Need a companion for a short trip? Or your parents want you to bring a girl home? Fret not, because you can find that girl– all with one click, and of course with fees ranging from US$20 to US$200. One company offers a hundred profiles for you to choose from. And yes, this is for real.
Apparently, Vinamost has pioneered Vietnam’s matchmaking landscape by turning fantasy into reality and allowing people to pay for pretend friends, lovers, relatives, work colleagues– you name it!
Who on earth can think of such a service as this? You can rent a Vietnamese friend to go to a movie or restaurant with, or someone to accompany you to a party or an event.
A Vinamost client takes his fake “fiancee” home
No one supported Nguyen Xuan Thien, Vinamost’s founder, when he first came up with this idea, except his girlfriend. Especially in a country like Vietnam, where people don’t really like the “rent-a-friend” concept.
Thien, who has a military engineering background, never thought he would become a businessman. But a year after, with more than 1 billion VND (approx. US$48, 500) in revenues and 700 signed contracts later, Vinamost has two offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh along with a staff of 500. Thien says he has received some offers to buy Vinamost for 2.5 billion VND (approx. US$121,000), so he knows that his business is doing well.
For me, it is strange and kind of sad. The booming of this business has something to do with the fact that people nowadays are too lonely or too busy to have a real friend, lover or companion. This rent-a-friend concept also satisfies the need to “save face”, which is a unique facet of Asian culture. Hopefully these schemes won’t backfire in the near future.
