The initiative started as a prank video in 2015, and now users can access the feature within an app and see location pins of people offering specific services. Buyers and providers agree on a price and once the service is performed, the money is released to the provider.
These services can be filtered into categories, to show the relevant people in the vicinity. Users can also send out requests to people nearby, asking for things such as lending cash or going out to dinner. Ant Financial, the company behind Alipay, doesn’t take a cut from any fees though is hoping to extend the service beyond Shanghai at some point in the future.
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