From cosplay date commissions and instant reply companions to digital parents and pet services, China’s young generation is driving a fast-growing companionship economy to meet evolving emotional needs.
Driven by young people’s growing emotional needs, diverse companionship services ranging from cosplay date commissions and instant reply virtual partners to digital parent accounts and pet companionship have boomed across China.
Otome Game-themed Paid Companionship
A girl using the pseudonym Gege has recently posted several videos of cosplay commissions on social media. These videos feature a performer dressed as Xia Yizhou, a character from her favourite otome game.
Cosplay commission is a side industry driven by the popularity of otome games, allowing clients to pay the performer to portray anime and game characters, and accompany her to spend a customised offline dating time.
“He prepared carefully in advance, understood my preferences, and even replaced the phone screensaver with my photo that day,” Gege recalled.
This experience offered Gege the feeling of being accompanied by an ideal boyfriend, fulfilling her fantasies of intimacy and emotional needs. In Beijing, the daily cost for an ordinary cosplay companion performer exceeds 1,000 yuan.
In recent years, diverse new companionship services, including cosplay commissions, instant reply companion and AI chatbots, have boomed to meet young people’s emotional demands. These rising services have formed an emerging market worth over 50 billion yuan.
Instant Reply Companion Brings Emotional Relief
Tian Yuan also pays for virtual companionship. She first booked an instant reply companion in November 2025. Overwhelmed by a heavy workload and low mood, she hesitated to burden her family and friends. So she booked an instant reply companion online.
For Yuan, timely feedback matters far more than the content of replies. She recalled that once, when she messaged her instant reply companion, who was driving but pulled over on purpose just to answer her message.
The constant interaction calms her emotions and makes her feel secure. She paid 150 yuan per day for the long-term service, helping her get through her hardest days.
Digital Parents Heal Emotional Vacancy
Qi Wang, an employee at a major tech firm, finds comfort in digital parents. Growing up in a divorced family, she frequently browses a social media account called “@Sharing Daily Life with Daughter” that shares daily videos between two parents and their daughter.
“Their videos always start with a loud shout of ‘baby’, and my tears can’t stop when I hear these words.” Wang said in her memory, no one has ever called her “baby” so affectionately.
Pet Companionship Fuels Consumption
Companions are not limited to humans.
In a newly opened pet life hall in Zhengzhou High-tech Zone, services including cat petting, pet boarding, sales, grooming and beauty care are available.
Boarding cats live in cosy private suites, and owners can check on their pets anytime via real-time surveillance, with daily fees at around 50 yuan.
Centred on emotional consumption, the pet-related businesses have become a new driver of the consumption economy. Services such as pet boarding, training and behavioural correction essentially extend the quality of cross-species companionship.
According to the 2026 China Pet Industry White Paper, China’s urban cat and dog consumption market reached 312.6 billion yuan in 2025, up 4.1% year on year. Post-90s pet owners remain the main group at 42.7%, followed by post-00s at 26.3% and post-80s at 24.5%.
Regardless of whether companions are human or animal, the underlying need remains the same: to please oneself and find a sense of identity and existence.
Written by Sha Liu, additional reporting by China Youth Daily and Dahe.cn.
If you liked this article, why not read: “You Can Rent Everything”, A New Fashion among Young Chinese
