Clever or con? Young China merchant sells 70,000 virtual ‘Einstein brains’ online to university students seeking advice, ‘spiritual nourishment’
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A 22-year-old man in China, whose virtual service has sold about 70,000 units on Taobao e-commerce platform this year, has caused much intrigue on mainland social media.
Zhang Jiangxi, from Hebei province in northern China, has created a resource called “Einstein’s Brain” where he answers people’s questions and provides “emotional comfort and spiritual nourishment” for 0.5 yuan (7 US cents) a time.
Entrepreneur Zhang, who has been selling items on Taobao since he was 17, was looking for a way to create a regular stream of income, when a friend jokingly said he was short of intelligence.
That is when he had his light bulb moment and created “Einstein’s Brain”.
He launched the virtual product on Taobao at the beginning of this year and used an image of the historical genius’s brain along with an intriguing caption that read: “This is Einstein’s Brain. It will grow on your brain as soon as you buy it,” Zhang wrote.