Wondering if you have a sex addiction? Have a question about the US-China trade war’s likely impact? Or about whether to buy a house? Chinese online question-and-answer mavens like Gu Zhongyi (顧中一) are there for you.
Gu, a nutritionist, is among hundreds of thousands of “experts” who sell their advice in thriving Chinese Internet forums where they serve as Web-based sources of advice.
Chinese often have nowhere else to turn — the government’s controls on information, especially on sensitive topics like the trade war and sex, makes some information hard to come by and consulting professionals in person costs too much for many people.
Photo: AFP
About 10,000 questions per day were asked last year via “Wenda” (問答, “question and answer”), a function on dominant Chinese microblogging platform Sina Weibo where financial, health and professional experts — often self-appointed — earn money with each response.
Gu quit his nutritionist job at a top Beijing hospital last year to focus on Wenda, establishing himself as a go-to guy for masses of young mothers with questions on nutrition for their babies.
“I think it is more meaningful to do a job that can impact more people. Wenda is a win-win,” said Gu, who supplements his online income by writing pay-for-access articles and books.
Many Wenda pundits are credentialed experts, but many more become authorities merely by drawing enough of a following.
They set a rate, typically between 100 and 200 yuan (US$14.58 and US$29.16) per question, answering those of their choosing.
More money comes in via “snooping,” in which other users pay 1 yuan each to view answers to previously asked questions.
Fueled by China’s ubiquitous use of mobile payments, snooping of hot topics can bring in tens of thousands of yuan per answer, which is split between the asker, the expert and Sina Weibo.
One of Wenda’s more popular experts is “Queen C-Cup,” whose identity and qualifications are unknown, but who has established herself as an oracle on sex, with more than 6 million followers.
Open discussion of sex is still frowned upon in China, and Queen C-Cup has complained of being harassed online.
However, Wenda grants a degree of anonymity to those asking questions, who seek Queen C-Cup’s advice on everything from jazzing up one’s sex life to grappling with domestic violence or the anguish of forced marriages.
Her fees go up to several hundred yuan and her answers have been heavily snooped.
Wenda is becoming an important part of China’s knowledge economy, Beijing-based Internet research company Sootoo Institute said in a report.
The number of people willing to pay for knowledge on Wenda or use other forms of paid content or articles last year doubled to nearly 188 million people, it said.
The dragged-out US-China trade tussle has spurred a wave of questions, especially because China’s government — ever wary of potential social instability — has largely stifled discussion of the dispute’s impact.
“Is there any way China and the US may reconcile? How will we ordinary folks be affected?” one Wenda user asked, while countless others have sought advice like whether to stock up now on certain goods.
China’s rising housing prices are another top subject that has minted countless “experts,” including Wang Sicong (王思聰).
An investor and son of a top Chinese business tycoon, Wang was asked — for a fee of 10,000 yuan — whether young urban residents should use their parents’ savings to buy homes.
The answer — renting might be a better choice, Wang said — has been snooped nearly 1 million times.
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
The death toll from a shooting in western Afghanistan rose to 11 on Saturday, after gunmen targeted civilians at a picnic spot in Herat, the provincial authority said. Bullet marks were visible on a wall of the Sayed Mohammad Agha Shia shrine, while bloodstains marked a blanket abandoned at the scene. “Eleven people have been recorded dead and eight others wounded from Friday’s incident, with the condition of two of the wounded reported as critical,” Herat’s information office said in a statement. The update raises a toll of seven killed provided on Friday by the Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs
RSS