Big bucks for advice: Agony aunts thrive on Weibo

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? China’s online questionand-answer mavens like Gu Zhongyi are there for you.

Gu, a nutritionist, is among thousands of “experts” who sell their advice in thriving Chinese internet forums where they serve as web-based agony aunts.

Usually, consulting professionals in person costs too much for many.

Around 10,000 questions per day were asked last year via “Wenda” (“Q & A”), a function on social media platform 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.

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 yuan (US$15) to 200 yuan 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 previous questions.

Fuelled by China’s ubiquitous use of mobile-phone payments, snooping of hot topics can bring in tens of thousands of yuan per answer, which is split between the questioner, the expert and 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.

But 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.

Wenda is becoming an important part of China’s knowledge economy, Beijingbased internet research company Sootoo Institute said in a recent report.

The number of people willing to pay for knowledge on Wenda or use other forms of paid content or articles doubled in 2017 to nearly 188 million, it said.