"The company's fast growth proved Vitali's first reactions wrong, but as he used the product himself, he began to realize that there's a big market for human connection - especially in a time when people are paying to talk to AI bots. "Loneliness is the biggest disease in the world right now," Vitali said. "Millions are lonely, and they are underemployed or seeking purpose. So, we built a platform where human time has value again, and a place where being human is important.""
"Cyber friends are first vetted to verify their identity, and then they can set a per-minute rate to charge for their conversations; the platform keeps 20% of that fee. People aren't just paying for companionship. Some cyber friends charge a higher rate if they're an academic or vetted expert in a specific subject area, or if they speak a particular language that a user would like to practice."
Rent a Cyber Friend is a video-chat marketplace that lets users pay per minute for conversations with vetted human "cyber friends." Founders leveraged two decades of collaboration to build the service, which grew to three million registered users without venture funding or paid marketing and operates without active social media due to limited staff. The platform verifies identities, lets cyber friends set per-minute rates, and retains a 20% commission. Some cyber friends command higher rates for academic expertise or language practice. The service positions human connection as a monetized response to widespread loneliness and will appear at TechCrunch Disrupt's Startup Battlefield in San Francisco.
Read at TechCrunch
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