How about looking at a consultancy angle to this. Like on-demand consultancy, coaching, advisers or some other reason people will pay to hang out with other peeps. Some one hanging out with you for cash isn't a "Friend".
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Hate this sh#t
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True story. When I was 14 I created a school project for a business concept called "Rent-A-Friend" for when you wanted to create the illusion of coolness or popularity, or go somewhere and "be recognized", or go on vacation and be one of the locals instead of a tourist. Wrote a basic "pick your friend" program on my Commodore 128. I got told it wasn't a good business idea, I always knew it was. That was back in 1985, so looks like I was just 31 years ahead of my time
This reminds me of the Host Bars in South Korea and Japan. You go and pay for members of the opposite sex to hang out with you (the obvious is not available). It is driven from the reality that in those cultures, so I'm told, it's generally not appropriate to meet or talk to strangers at bars. In addition, these cultures have become very isolated, and digital. I wouldn't be surprised to see IRL services like this pop up more and more as our lives move further and further into the digital realm, especially with VR. Reference for Host bars in Korea and Japan: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine...
If you want to pay for sex, there's Ohlala. If you want free cuddles, there's Spoonr. This seems like an interesting in-between: temporary friendship as a service, for a constantly distracted generation used to the disposability of apps and usernames and connections.
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I like the Local Guide thing since you sometimes find yourself in a new city and just want to hang with a local who can show you the really cool stuff. I don't think I'd ever do it in my home town, I've got my wife for that!
I think a lot of people are always skeptical about this sort of thing -- but so where they about uber and airbnb and just about any company that involved vulnerability --- the social tour guide narrative is the start to removing this stigma. Interesting --- got to worry about females and pervs stalking as well --- big liabilities
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