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Fran Lu

A woman in China has been sending “good night messages” to complete strangers for the past 12 years – for a small fee.
Jiumei, who is in her 30s, sells the service on China’s e-commerce platform, Taobao, which is operated by Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post.
About 10,000 people have bought the messages from her at one yuan (14 US cents) a night. She has sent more than 50,000 messages in total.
The wording varies from a simple “good night” in Chinese, to poetic verses and consolations.
Jiumei told the mainland media outlet Personage that her messages are a comfort to “modern people suffering from loneliness”, and a window for her to glimpse into the lives of others .

Many clients have bought good night messages for people they are secretly in love with or exes they miss.
Jiumei refuses to send messages from single to married people to avoid causing trouble for the receivers and their families.
One mother asked Jiumei to say good night to her 14-year-old daughter, who suffered from anxiety and was addicted to her mobile phone.
The youngster stopped trusting her parents who found it hard to understand her illness. The mother wanted to “console her lonely heart and remind her to sleep early”.
Another person bought the service for her brother, a late-stage cancer patient who increasingly shut himself off from his family. She hoped the messages would keep him company.
Another client, a man in his 30s who ran a start-up business, bought the messages himself for support.
Jiumei also took it well when people stopped buying her service, because she hoped it meant they were no longer feeling lonely.

The good night message service has been Jiumei’s part-time job for 12 years. During that time she also became a director at a company in the city of Shenzhen, Guangdong province, southern China, then opened a cafe. She is married with two sons.
She says the business has never been profitable, earning her a maximum of 3,000 yuan (US$400) a year. She considered giving it up, but changed her mind after former clients contacted her to thank her.
Jiumei said the service has also helped her emotionally. The ninth daughter of a Chaoshan family in southern China’s Guangdong province, she said her parents had lavished all their love on her little brother, their only son.
She thinks of her good night messages as providing a “sense of ritual” as well as comfort.


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Woman provides service for 12 years, sends 50,000 messages on Taobao
Comforts lonely, ill people, sends simple words, poetic verses, consolations


A mother of two in China who provides a messaging service that brings comfort to the lonely and unwell says she does not make money from it but that it helps her too.


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Who buys ‘good night messages’ on China e-commerce sites? Woman who delivers them spills the beans

Woman provides service for 12 years, sends 50,000 messages on Taobao Comforts lonely, ill people, sends simple words, poetic verses, consolations

Woman provides service for 12 years, sends 50,000 messages on Taobao

Comforts lonely, ill people, sends simple words, poetic verses, consolations