Much like booking a taxi, a fitness trainer or a freelance designer, the service of hiring a “boyfriend” by the hour is slowly growing in popularity. What once seemed a fiction out of Japanese drama is now becoming a real business in various countries of the world, and in India too. Facebook groups, Instagram pages, dating apps and various online profile-based platforms now carry advertisements offering service at a set hourly fee as a “movie partner,” a “shopping buddy” and even a “medical support companion.”
A journey from Japan’s “rental person” economy
The “rent-a-boyfriend” business did not begin in a day. Its roots lie in Japan’s “rental person” economy of the early 1990s, when the practice began of hiring people for money as family members, relatives, listeners or companions at social occasions.
The basic idea was simple: when a social situation in real life becomes awkward or complicated, hire a person for a few hours to play a particular social role.
Need a companion to attend a wedding? Hire one. Want someone to talk to after a break-up? Book a listener. If you did not want to go alone to a family occasion, there was an arrangement for that too. In the early 2010s these services began to be known as “rental girlfriend” and “rental boyfriend.”
What is a “rental boyfriend”?
The name may give many people a different impression. But these services are not usually advertised as sexual services. The client and the companion generally meet at a cafe, park, museum, restaurant or shopping mall. Most agencies have strict rules: no sexual activity of any kind; no going to hotel rooms; no meeting in secluded places; no staying overnight; polite behaviour at all times.
What the money essentially buys in this service is time, conversation, attention and company.
Why did it become popular?
Japanese social culture has a tendency towards politeness, emotional restraint and not imposing personal problems on others. Many people therefore feel more comfortable speaking about themselves within a formally defined relationship. Added to that are a rising number of people living alone, busy working lives, urban loneliness and a demand for stress-free social contact.
As a result the practice began to be seen not as a curiosity but as a real solution to modern loneliness.
Booking a rental boyfriend in Tokyo usually costs between 3,000 and 6,000 yen an hour (about 1,700 to 3,500 Indian rupees). The cost rises further when meals, travel and other activities are added.
Popularity on social media
For a long time this was a limited business in Japan. It later became known worldwide through YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. Many travel content creators published videos under titles such as “I hired a boyfriend in Tokyo.”
One YouTuber showed how they met a hired companion at a convenience store, paid about 100 dollars an hour (about 8,500 Indian rupees), took photographs together, walked hand in hand, had lunch and extended the booking when the time went well.
In one viral video a rental boyfriend said he meets about 10 or more clients a month, among them university students, recently divorced women and married women.
Social media thus began to present the service as a kind of travel experience rather than a social service.
How it is spreading in India
Although the same model as Japan’s is not followed in India, the trend is spreading through social media, online marketplaces and various companionship platforms.
NDTV found in its investigation that men in various Facebook groups are advertising themselves as “rented boyfriends” for outings, attending events or spending time.
A website called Co-Partner describes itself as a “professional social support service,” where users create profiles and wait to be hired for particular services.
Some of the website’s set rates are: spending time together, 1,500 rupees an hour; going to a club, 2,000 rupees an hour; cinema companion, 2,000 rupees an hour; shopping companion, 2,000 rupees an hour; hospital support, 2,000 rupees an hour.
Although the platform avoids the words “date” and “boyfriend” and presents the services as social support and company, they are widely promoted on social media as “rent-a-boyfriend” or “rent-a-girlfriend” services.
More platforms
Another platform, Nell, works like a jobs website, where many Indian men have registered as companions for social occasions, conversation or outings. The international website Rent-a-Boyfriend offers similar services, where the hourly fee is usually 11 to 15 US dollars, and there are several profiles from India as well.
Growing promotion on Instagram
Many people now promote themselves on Instagram as rental boyfriends, and some businesses advertise such services. An Instagram page called Rent Your Own Boyfriend India has more than 10,000 followers, where the service is promoted through images made with artificial intelligence (AI), coffee dates, shopping, selfies in cars and eye-catching captions.
Some users are also promoting their services on Tinder profiles with phrases such as “available for events,” “travel companion” and “paid company only.”
Who is using the service?
According to those providing such services, most rental boyfriends are university students or young professionals who do the work for extra income.
Analysing comments on various platforms, NDTV found interest in the service to be higher particularly among urban women in their twenties. Some use the service to make content, some out of curiosity, and some really are looking for a companion.
Providers, for their part, see it as an opportunity for extra income. As an example, it was said that a significant income is possible from only a few movie-partner bookings a week.
A new business in loneliness?
In analysts’ view, booking a shopping companion for two hours does not mean looking for a romantic relationship. Many people live in cities where friends have no time, family is far away and eating alone is still felt to be socially awkward.
In the same way, a companion for going to the cinema or to hospital is a practical need for many.
The word “boyfriend,” however, adds an extra emotional dimension to the service. The hired companion is expected to be caring, polite, attentive and emotionally present.
The business in India is still scattered and not under any large regulatory framework. Most of the services are run through social media or informal arrangements.
Even so, various businesses are openly advertising companionship by the hour, suggesting that what was once an odd idea is slowly taking the shape of a new gig economy or service-based business.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report