Key facts
- A growing 'loneliness industry' has emerged in China to address widespread isolation.
- Services include meal delivery, home repairs, medical escorts, and companionship for hiking.
- Wang Yingwei's company offers services at less than half the price of a professional caregiver.
- Liu Yanyan, a 23-year-old, works as a medical escort for clients who may feel awkward asking friends or colleagues for help.
- Sinolink estimated the market size at $7.4 billion in 2025, with expectations of continued growth.
A growing sector in China is emerging to combat the pervasive issue of loneliness, offering paid companionship services to individuals across different age groups. These services aim to provide human connection, which is increasingly scarce due to societal shifts and urban migration.
For elderly individuals like 91-year-old Yang, who lives on the outskirts of Beijing and experienced profound loneliness after her husband's death, these services have been transformative. Yang's life was significantly improved by Wang Yingwei and his delivery team, who not only bring hot meals but also assist with practical issues like fixing her air conditioner and ensuring she has filtered water. Yingwei, a former mobile phone salesman, founded his company to help seniors remain at home, inspired by his father-in-law's move to a nursing home. His business, which currently employs four people, offers services at less than half the price of a professional caregiver.
Younger generations are also utilizing these services. Twenty-three-year-old Liu Yanyan works as a 'medical escort,' accompanying clients to large, bureaucratic city hospitals for appointments or to pick up medication. She notes that many young professionals in Beijing, who may not have established social networks, hire escorts to avoid feeling awkward about asking colleagues for favors due to cultural concepts of social reciprocity.
Associate Professor Teresa Kuan from the Chinese University of Hong Kong explains that the structure of Chinese society and interaction modes exacerbate isolation. She suggests that some individuals prefer paid companions because the service relationship offers predictability, unlike the potential unpredictability of friendships. Wang Zhoutao, who runs a hiking business, provides emotional support and encouragement to clients, often those who feel a void in their relationships or have faced setbacks.
While precise data on the size of this 'loneliness industry' is scarce, securities company Sinolink valued it at around $7.4 billion in 2025, with expectations for further growth driven by modern lifestyles.