In the second half of 2021, Shanghai, Suzhou, Beijing, Chengdu and other places began to emerge a new way of dating - off-order convenience stores. Customers spend a few yuan, leave their own personal information and contact information, stuff it into a blind box or a single drift bottle, wait for the contact of the person with a heart, and at the same time take away the information left by others.
This business, which targets single men and women, has taken the country by storm in just a few months. On the wall of a convenience store in Shanghai, more than 2,000 people have left their wishes here, most of whom are post-95s and post-00s. Young people trapped by the problem of single removal, plunge into the game of single blind box, waiting for a random matching "romantic encounter".
However, this "carnival" without thresholds is happy with simplicity and trapped in simplicity. People who use the blind box with a game attitude eventually return to the rules of reality.
01 Zero threshold off-single blind box
The 35-year-old Tang Lanming first came into contact with the single blind box because he brushed a short video, and the introduction of "spending 3 yuan to take a girlfriend home" made him have a strong curiosity. He works for a mold making company, surrounded by mostly men, and "wants to reach more women through the single blind box."
The zero threshold of the single blind box has become the original intention of many young people to choose it. There is no access condition for the marriage platform or the blind date corner, nor is there any need to provide proof of real estate income, and there is no other required information except gender, interests and contact information.
Figure | Tang Lanming's encounter with a small note
Tang Lanming was born in the countryside, with a junior high school education, and currently has no house and no car. I have had two girlfriends, both of whom ended because the other parent did not agree to the marriage. Later, Tang Lanming registered Century Jiayuan, because he did not invest money in it, the information was not promoted, and "did not have any effect." He does not like the feeling of "clearly marking the price" of the marriage platform, and feels that "it is not comfortable to contact girls like that".
The randomly matched off-single blind box gave Tang Lanming a glimmer of hope. He hopes to find a girl who doesn't mind his own conditions, "People are gentle and kind, as long as people are good, others can be run-in." Moreover, the single blind box can also help the poor self, not because they can't speak in the first step of the card, "girls like to listen to good words, I think it is too fake, can not speak." ”
Born in 1993, he graduated from a college and did many different jobs in shopping malls, educational institutions, insurance companies and other places, because "I don't want to be too tired, I just want to live a relaxed and happy life", I was complained by my girlfriend that his income was not high.
Anthropologist Xiang Biao has pointed out that one trend in modern society is the "disappearance of the neighborhood" . And proposed that the neighborhood is not evaporated, but transformed, the original sense of physical perception of the "nearby", into the data of the "nearby", which brings a new "sense of convenience" - what you want immediately.
Born in the 1970s, Xiang Biao believes that their generation is confident that they can build relationships "nearby", but today's young people seem to have lost this confidence, which is emotionally reflected in the beginning of relying on the recommendation of others rather than finding good relationships themselves.
Born in 1992, Zhang Xin has extensive experience using various types of dating software, and he hopes to find the right object quickly and accurately in this way, "When you are not busy, you will log in every day to read the recommendations, and when you are busy, you will scan your eyes on the weekend." After being recommended by friends to use the blind box dating APP, he successfully matched with several women in a month, and finally added five people's WeChat, of which three people maintained chat relationships.
Figure | Zhang Xin's profile page on the "Super Like" APP
In Zhang Xin's view, the product interaction of this blind box dating APP is not perfect, the interface is not stable enough, the function is less, and the gameplay is single, but "as a new software, the user group is relatively clean, and the purpose of everyone's communication is relatively pure, which is a blue ocean." 02
A single game from street fire to business districts
Tang Lanming is a regular customer of the off-single convenience store, during this year's "Eleventh" holiday, he walked into the Shanghai off-single convenience store 7 times, took away 6 bottles of the opposite sex, and added 4 of them' WeChat.
Opened in 2020, Shanghai De-Order Convenience Store is an early rising brand of off-order stores. The entire orange wall of the store is divided into 365 grids, each with an average of 6-7 single bottles, and more than 2,000 people have left their own "encounter notes" on this wall.
Figure | The single wall of The Chengdu Off-Order Convenience Store
The huge market contained in the single economy allows the single blind box to get a piece of the pie in addition to a number of products such as marriage platforms and dating software. According to the seventh census, China's adult single population will reach 250-260 million in 2021, and the number of adults living alone will exceed 92 million.
In the view of Xiao Feng, the manager of the Shanghai off-single convenience store, the rise of the single blind box has solved a series of pain points for young people to make friends. "Now young people have a relatively narrow social range, and it is difficult to meet the right person of the opposite sex. It is difficult to meet strangers on their own, and they do not know how to break the ice in the early stages of the relationship. Going to the blind date bureau is against the kind of interaction with a clear purpose, and the discomfort of being commodified. Blind boxes circumvent these problems. ”
Figure | Off-order convenience store part of the pavilion
Zhang Lingyun, a professor at Shandong University of Finance and Economics, once analyzed that the business of taking off blind boxes makes use of young people's curiosity and beautiful imagination of the unknown party to mobilize young people's desire to consume.
Relying solely on a single blind box cannot maintain the revenue of a single convenience store. The single blind box is only responsible for the pre-drainage of products, with the slogan of "3 yuan can buy love" to attract users to the store, and then carry out some "supporting services".
Every week, Chengdu's off-order convenience store will hold offline activities and charge corresponding entrance fees. If the paid customer becomes a "daily push" customer, its blind box exposure will be greatly improved, and the daily push fee will be 99 yuan per person. Paid members can enjoy one-on-one red bride service in the store, 199 yuan is the entry price, the maximum is not limited.
Figure | Chengdu convenience store released the "day push girl" circle of friends
Located in Beijing, the off-order store "Super Like" is not based on the single blind box as the main business, and the later blind date activities and personalized red bride services are the main sources of store revenue. The store will also provide board games, book clubs, DIY handicrafts, movie viewing activities and other services, the ticket price of the event ranges from 59 yuan, 199 yuan, 399 yuan.
Figure | "Super Like" offline event calendar
Internet designer Guo Shuang twice experienced the script killing activities of the Beijing single board game store, and was voted "the most popular girl" for the first time, and had the opportunity to date his "heartwarming boy" after the event. A full range of supporting services allow young people to be deeply immersed in this single game.
03Can the blind box really help people get rid of orders?
The zero-threshold single blind box uses its simple randomness to attract people in, but also traps people because of its simple randomness. As a regular customer of off-order convenience stores, Tang Lanming is more often "empty of bamboo baskets".
The first girl Tang Lanming contacted said that she already had a boyfriend after receiving the news, "She forgot to notify the convenience store to remove her own single bottle." On two other occasions, he opened the bottle and found that the other party did not leave contact information.
What makes Tang Lanming feel even more "crying and laughing" is that everyone seems to be using a blind box with the attitude of a game, but once the two meet, everything is involved in the rules of reality. A short "encounter note" can't write too many dating requirements, but that doesn't mean everyone doesn't have a request.
A girl did not mark her height when filling in the "ideal type", but after being added to WeChat by Tang Lanming, she said "I want to find a boy above 185cm", Tang Lanming's height is 170cm, the other party is an athlete, and the height is 188cm. A 26-year-old Jiangsu girl, when she heard that Tang Lanming had no house and no car, "said she didn't consider it." Tang Lanming himself did not have "no requirements" for the woman as described, and a 30-year-old divorced woman (whose child returned to her ex-husband) was rejected by him on the grounds that "I want to find a girl with a simple experience and a simple idea, so that the two sides will be able to talk more."
Tang Lanming admitted that the purpose of his use of the single blind box is not arbitrary, but with the expectation of finding a marriage partner, he hopes to get married at the age of 36 (next year), "the family is tight, my mother is about to cry." Tang Lanming believes that marriage can help him stabilize, "people are willing to work hard for the family, even if there is pressure, they are happy, a person has no pressure, no one cares, can not save money."
Even if it is not as results-oriented as Tang Lanming's dating, it is difficult to meet the needs of users, who are connected to each other through the single game, but they are still trapped in the problem of building intimate relationships.
Chengdu single convenience store harvested more than 4,000 single bottles in the three months of opening, and finally only promoted 32 couples, of which 8 have broken up, and the longest insist is one month. Someone sent a WeChat message to the shopkeeper the day before to say that he had taken off the list, let the bottle be removed from the shelf, and the next day he said that he had broken up, so that the bottle could be put back.
"I attach more importance to the communication of the spiritual world than the external conditions, and the other party is preferably a relatively mature girl with sufficient cultural level, who can play with me and have common hobbies and topics," Zhang Xin said. But the past experience of using other dating software made him not optimistic, "two people developed too fast in the early stage, and later there was a big contradiction, each other's heads down, chickens flying dogs jumping."
Figure | Zhang Xin and his love cat
Guo Shuang, who had the opportunity to date the "heart-touching boy", described the meeting between the two as "not salty and not light": "I can't feel his good feelings for me." Later, their WeChat chat history stopped at the day's farewell.
Chen Haifeng hopes that the next relationship "can experience the real beauty", and the love model in his heart is a sister-brother love for a star, "the kind of life state in which the sister takes care of her brother". He once met a girl through the convenience store, but always "chatted without speculation", both people were busy with work, and gradually broke off contact, "if the girl is not active in replying to the message, the boy will not be enthusiastic."
Now, Chen Haifeng no longer pins his emotional hopes on the blind box, he has established a WeChat community for outdoor hiking, "even if you can't meet the right person, it's better to know like-minded friends."
(Pseudonyms are used in some parts of the article)
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Written by | Xia Siqi
Edit | Sun Yalan