Executive Overview
In the fast-paced world of China’s app-driven "sharing economy"—which has previously disrupted urban transit with dockless bicycles and transformed the way citizens order food, rent umbrellas, and hail rides—one company attempted to push the envelope into uncharted and deeply controversial territory.
In September 2017, the Chinese lifestyle and wellness company Taqu (operating internationally as "Touch") launched a short-lived, highly provocative service known colloquially as the "Girlfriend Sharing" project. Promoted via the Touch app and marketed heavily on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, the service allowed users to rent high-end, life-size silicone sex dolls for home delivery at a daily rate of roughly $46 USD.
The project was designed to cater to China’s massive demographic of single men by offering a rotating selection of customizable, modular dolls—marketed under personas ranging from a "Greek bikini model" and a "US Wonder Woman" to a "Korean housewife." Yet, despite a calculated marketing strategy and an overtly sex-positive corporate philosophy, the enterprise collapsed almost as quickly as it began.
Within a mere 48 hours of going live in Beijing, the project collided squarely with the rigid boundaries of state regulation, public decency laws, and conservative communist oversight. Chinese authorities swiftly intervened, citing the service for distributing "vulgar" content, issuing a fine, and forcing the company to pull the plug on the app interface entirely.
This 48-hour experiment served as more than just a bizarre footnote in the annals of tech industry overreach. It highlighted a profound cultural and political collision: the explosive growth of China’s consumer tech sector crashing against the unyielding wall of state censorship and traditional moral values. Furthermore, the incident cast a glaring spotlight on a severe, underlying societal crisis in modern China—a massive gender imbalance driven by decades of demographic policies, leaving tens of millions of men isolated in a perpetual state of singledom.
Detailed Chronology of a 48-Hour Disruption
The trajectory of the "Girlfriend Sharing" project was characterized by rapid acceleration, immediate viral attention, and an equally swift regulatory backlash.
Day Zero: The Soft Launch and Marketing Blitz
In the days leading up to the public rollout, Taqu’s third-party marketing and public relations teams initiated a coordinated digital campaign designed to capture the attention of China’s digitally native, app-reliant demographic. Operating under the banner of the Touch app—a platform boasting more than 500,000 active users focused on sex-positive products and wellness—the company introduced the concept of the "Shared Girlfriend."
Promotional materials heavily emphasized companionship and emotional relief. Using the slogan "Shared girlfriend — your heartwarming companionship," the marketing framing attempted to sanitize the product, positioning the high-end silicone figures not merely as adult novelties, but as therapeutic tools designed to alleviate loneliness. The lineup of available figures was diverse and meticulously curated, featuring five distinct models:
- The Greek Bikini Model
- The US Wonder Woman (evoking Western pop-culture superhero aesthetics)
- The Korean Housewife
- The Russian Teenager
- The Hong Kong Car Race Cheerleader
The logistical framework was equally ambitious. Users could order a doll through the app, have it delivered directly to their residences, and pay a daily subscription fee of approximately $46. To address hygiene concerns, Touch instituted a rigorous maintenance protocol: upon return, the silicone figures would undergo a specialized cleaning process in which the "lower parts" were removed, sanitized, or replaced entirely. In a bizarrely innovative twist, the company even offered a modular configuration where users could purchase and keep the lower half of a doll while ordering a fresh top half for subsequent rentals.
Day One: Public Fascination and Online Outcry
Almost immediately upon going live, the service became a viral sensation across Chinese social media. Netizens on Weibo and WeChat debated the ethics, practicality, and sheer audacity of the sharing economy expanding into the realm of intimacy.
While a segment of the online population praised the service as a progressive, sex-positive step forward that addressed the legitimate emotional needs of isolated urbanites, a much louder chorus of critics expressed moral outrage. Commentators argued that the service degraded women, promoted vulgarity, and crossed ethical red lines that even China’s notoriously permissive commercial tech sector should not breach.
Crucially, the timing of the launch could not have been worse. The rollout coincided with the run-up to politically sensitive, high-level Communist Party meetings in Beijing. During such periods, Chinese regulatory agencies and internet censors are on heightened alert, sweeping away any content deemed capable of disturbing public harmony or generating widespread controversy.
Day Two: The Heavy Hand of the State
The intervention of Chinese law enforcement was swift and uncompromising. Local police and regulatory bodies flagged the rental project as a direct violation of state standards regarding public decency and obscenity.
According to statements later given to media outlets by Touch representatives, police contacted company executives directly, categorizing the doll-rental service as "vulgar" and issuing formal administrative penalties. The company was assessed a fine of 2,000 Chinese Yuan (approximately $340 USD)—a relatively modest financial penalty, but one that carried immense symbolic weight and legal jeopardy for a publicly listed entity.
Faced with the threat of severe corporate sanctions, escalated state scrutiny, and potential reputational ruin during a politically sensitive climate, Taqu’s leadership made an immediate strategic retreat. Within 48 hours of its grand debut, the "Girlfriend Sharing" project was permanently suspended, and all promotional interfaces were scrubbed from the Touch application.
Supporting Context & Metrics: The Crisis of Male Singledom in China
To understand why a company would take the extraordinary commercial risk of launching a timeshare sex doll service, one must examine the profound demographic pressures shaping modern Chinese society.
For decades, China has grappled with an acute demographic imbalance—a crisis largely forged by the intersection of traditional cultural preferences for male heirs and the enforcement of the state’s strict family-planning mandates, most notably the historical "one-child policy" (which has since been revised, though its generational echoes persist).
The Numbers Behind the Imbalance
According to official demographic surveys, China’s sex ratio at birth has remained heavily skewed for a generation. Recent national data indicates that there are approximately 1.18 men for every one woman nationwide.
Given China’s total population—hovering at nearly 1.38 billion people—this minor statistical percentage translates into a staggering human reality: tens of millions more men than women living in the country. This demographic anomaly has created a massive, structurally disadvantaged class of heterosexual men who face near-impossible odds in the traditional marriage and dating markets.
Sociologists refer to this demographic cohort as guanggun—literally translating to "bare branches," a historic idiom used to describe men who are unable to marry and perpetuate the family lineage. In modern urban centers, these "bare branches" are often young professionals, migrant workers, or single homeboys who live isolated lives, burdened by intense societal pressure to purchase property, achieve financial success, and secure a bride—expectations that many find mathematically and economically out of reach.
A Fertile Ground for Alternative Intimacy
It is within this pressure cooker of loneliness and societal expectation that enterprises like Taqu found their rationale. The sex toy and wellness industry in China has experienced a quiet, multi-billion-dollar boom, driven precisely by this unmet demand for intimacy.
While traditional brick-and-mortar adult shops have long existed in the shadows of Chinese cities, the digital economy transformed sexual wellness into a venture-backed startup sector. Companies like Taqu sought to normalize these products by wrapping them in the language of tech innovation, wellness, and mental health support. To the corporate mindset, a rented sex doll was not an obscene novelty, but a logical consumer service—much like renting a car or sharing a bicycle—designed to bridge the gap for a lonely demographic.
Official Statements and Corporate Posture
Following the abrupt termination of the project, Taqu adopted a fascinatingly complex public relations strategy. Striking a tone that blended corporate contrition with defiant, sex-positive advocacy, company executives issued statements through Weibo and conducted interviews with international tech publications like Motherboard and Gizmodo.
The Apology and Concession
In an official statement released via Weibo, Touch management bowed to regulatory pressure while carefully placing the blame on external operational missteps:
"Because our third-party marketing staff failed to comply with related regulations, certain promotion campaigns were suspended by regulatory agencies. Considering the widespread controversy, we decided to stop the project."
The statement went on to offer an explicit apology tailored to the political sensitivities of the moment:
"We sincerely apologize for the negative impact caused by the project, especially its negative impact on online discourse at a time of major meetings… In the future, Touch will continue to put corporate social responsibility as a priority while actively exploring healthy and harmonious sexual lifestyle."
The Defense of Sexual Wellness
Despite the apology and the state-mandated fine, Taqu’s leadership remained remarkably outspoken regarding their core mission. In interviews with industry reporters, company spokesman Zheng Ying defended the underlying philosophy of the project, asserting that the company had been unfairly targeted for merely addressing a natural human need.
Zheng explained to Motherboard that the intervention was sudden and severe:
"Because of the renting dolls, the police call us and said it’s vulgar, and give us a punishment… After careful consideration, we decided to voluntarily shut down the lease of the doll business. Because our company is a listed company, we must be careful."
Yet, Zheng emphasized that the company’s broader cultural ambitions remained intact:
"Sex itself is not vulgar. Making more Chinese people experience the pleasure of sex is still the goal we strive for… But the Taqu app will go on. We will find a new way to popularize the sex interest culture… and we think everyone has [the] right to talk about sex."
This duality—prostrating oneself before state censors while quietly affirming a progressive, rights-based approach to sexual expression—captures the delicate tightrope walked by modern Chinese tech enterprises operating under an authoritarian political framework.
Future Outlook: Innovation Versus State Control
The 48-hour lifespan of Taqu’s "Girlfriend Sharing" project serves as a definitive case study in the limits of innovation within the People’s Republic of China. It demonstrates that while the nation’s commercial sector is encouraged to push boundaries, digitize traditional industries, and pioneer the "sharing economy," those innovations are subject to immediate, absolute veto when they challenge Communist Party orthodoxy or transgress deeply ingrained traditional moral boundaries.
The Chilling Effect on Sexual Tech
For the broader adult tech and wellness sector in China, the incident created a distinct chilling effect. While the market demand for loneliness-mitigating products—ranging from advanced AI companion apps to high-end silicone dolls—remains robust and growing, startups have been forcefully reminded that public-facing, disruptive marketing stunts involving intimacy are a dangerous game. Future ventures in this space are likely to operate with significantly greater discretion, avoiding the high-visibility public spaces of mainstream social media platforms like Weibo in favor of encrypted, closed-loop ecosystems.
The Unresolved Crisis of Isolation
Ultimately, the suspension of the doll-rental project did nothing to solve the underlying social dilemma that birthed it. The demographic imbalance of 1.18 men to every woman remains a stubborn, long-term reality. Millions of Chinese men continue to navigate urban isolation, economic anxiety, and the profound psychological toll of singledom.
As long as this demographic pressure cooker persists, entrepreneurs will continue to seek innovative ways to monetize intimacy and companionship. Whether through virtual reality, artificial intelligence, or privately owned (rather than shared) adult products, the market for surrogate intimacy in China is not going away. However, as Taqu learned in its abrupt and bruising 48-hour experiment, any future attempts to commercialize human connection will have to navigate a narrow and unforgiving path dictated by the watchful eyes of state regulators.
