Wedding Photo Shredding Business Proves Big Hit in China

An offline business in China’s Shandong Province has been getting attention for offering divorcing couples the chance to destroy their wedding pictures in a cheap and effective way.

Tearing up wedding photos after a failed marriage isn’t as easy as it sounds in China, a country where it’s customary to immortalize wedding stills on tough acrylic canvases that also happen to be very resistant to flames. That leaves divorcing couples with few options, like simply throwing their wedding pictures in the trash, which many are reluctant to do for fear that they might get recognized by someone. That’s where a new business venture from Shandong Province comes in. Founded by a young man surnamed Liu, the new company specializes in shredding wedding photographs, helping clients put their past behind them while also protecting their privacy.

Read More »

Hotpot Restaurant Launches Hair Washing Service for Loyal Customers

A HaiDiLao restaurant in Wuxi, China, has gone viral for launching a shampooing service for loyal customers who want to get the smell of food out of their hair after a meal.

Enjoying a bowl of tasty hotpot is usually an enjoyable experience, but carrying the smell of the food with you in your hair for hours or even days, not so much. Luckily, if the pilot program of one popular hotpot restaurant chain proves successful, hotpot enjoyers across China won’t have to worry about their hair smelling like a kitchen anymore. HaiDiLao, China’s largest hotpot restaurant chain, recently launched a shampooing service at one of its restaurants in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. The hair salon-like experience is only available to loyal customers who accumulate enough loyalty points, called ‘Lao coins’, by spending enough money at HaiDiLao locations.

Read More »

Male Online Seller Finds Massive Success Modelling Women’s High Heel Footwear

A 41-year-old man has reportedly been making a killing selling women’s high heel shoes and boots by modeling them himself.

The unnamed man who reportedly hails from China’s Sichuan province recently made news headlines after it was revealed that he had been using a very unusual technique to boost up his online sales. Live stream commerce is big business in China, but the competition is so stiff that entrepreneurs constantly have to come up with gimmicks to set themselves apart and gain potential customers. In this particular case, the guy films himself walking and even running in the high-heel women’s footwear he sells, and people seem to love it.

  Read More »

Bankrupt Former Millionaire Is Paying $6.4 Million Debt by Selling Sausages on the Street

A bankrupt former millionaire in China has been making news headlines for his plan to pay a debt of 46 million yuan ($6.4 million) by selling grilled sausages at a street food stall.

Not too long ago, Tang Jian, a restauranteur in the Chinese city of Hangzhou, was considered one of the most successful businessmen in all of Zhejiang Province. By the age of 36, he already owned a chain of restaurants and had amassed an enviable fortune. But in 2005, Tang decided to invest a sizeable portion of his money into a completely new industry and things started going horribly wrong for him. Now at 52, the former millionaire finds himself over $6 million in debt, but he is working hard to repay every single cent by selling grilled sausages on the street.

Read More »

Horse Kicks – $1,200 Horse Sneakers Are a Real Thing That Exists

Horse Kicks are just what they sound like – sneakers for horses. Created from popular human models like Air Jordan or Yeezy Boost, each pair sells for at least $1,200.

With some very few notable exceptions, horseshoes have remained virtually unchanged for hundreds of years, but that is about to change thanks to sneaker customizing expert and The Shoe Surgeon SRGN Academy alumni, Marcus Floyd. Using deconstruction and reconstruction, Floyd has created several pairs of equine sneakers that retain the elements that usually make brands like Air Jordan, Yeezy, or NewBalance650 stand out. At the same time, these are essentially horseshoes, so they also meet the unique ergonomics of horse hooves.

Read More »

Gadget Funeral – The Lucrative Service of Preserving Old and Broken Gadgets

A unique “gadget funeral” service allows people to preserve outdated and broken devices that they have become attached to.

They say you shouldn’t get attached to material things, but most of us can’t really help it. Whether it’s our first car, the house we grew up in, or even an old phone, we tend to get attached to our worldly possessions. And since mobile phones and tablets have become almost an extension of ourselves, it makes sense that some of us have trouble upgrading even when it is obvious that our old gadgets are struggling. That’s where China’s gadget funeral service businesses come in, allowing users to preserve their obsolete devices as framed, deconstructed works of art that can be hung around and admired forever.

Read More »

Colombian Entrepreneur Makes Money Literally Out of Thin Air

Juan Carlos Alvarado, a young entrepreneur from Medellin, Colombia, claims he makes hundreds of dollars per day selling bottles of air from his home city.

Medellin, Colombia’s second-largest city, is known as the “City of Eternal Spring,” because of its pleasant climate all year round. But you can’t sell climate to someone thousands of miles away, now can you? Air is a whole other matter though, and it’s actually a tried-and-true business model. People have been selling cans of fresh air and bottles of fresh air to people in polluted countries like China for years, and it was actually these success stories that inspired Juan Carlos Alvarado, a native of Medellin, to start his own air-selling business.

Read More »

Japanese Company Specializes in Fashion Apparel For Robots

Rocket Road is a unique clothing brand aimed not at humans, but at robots of all shapes and sizes. It aims to offer customization options and seamlessly bridge the gap between humans and machines.

Last month, Japanese company Rocket Road announced the launch of its first lineup of functional protective cover wear for robotic arms. These decorative and functional covers are available in over 40 different colors, can be made out of dustproof, anti-bacterial, water repellent or heat-resistant material, and are meant to brighten up the otherwise bland working environment and provide the robotic arms with a bit of personality. But this is only the company’s latest project. Rocket Road has been creating robot clothing for a long time now and has quite an impressive portfolio.

Read More »

Innovative Japanese Service Lets You Rent Paintings Instead of Buying Them

Buying works of art can become an expensive habit, but what if you didn’t have to buy the artworks and instead lease them for however long you wanted? That’s the premise of an ingenious Japanese business that lets people rent paintings.

Casie is an innovative service that connects painters and art lovers in a whole new way. Instead of brokering the sale of artworks it offers clients the possibility of leasing them by the month. It sounds a bit strange, maybe because it just hasn’t been done before, but if people can rent designer clothes and expensive jewelry, why can’t they do the same with art? Apparently, this model benefits both artists, who are able to generate more revenue from their works in the long term, and clients, who get to keep the paintings until they get bored of them and decided to swap them for new ones.

Read More »

Plastic Bag With AIR From Kanye West Listening Event Sells for $7,600

Someone just managed to sell a small plastic bag they claim contains air from a recent Kanye West listening event for a whopping $7,600 on eBay.

It’s no secret that the Kanye West brand is synonymous with commercial success, but not even that explains how someone can pay almost $8,000 for an empty plastic bag simply because it is in some way related to the popular American artist.  West recently hosted the much awaited Atlanta DONDA listening event on the Mercedes-Benz stadium in Atlanta, and one fan allegedly lucky enough to be in attendance took the opportunity to make some money out of it. He took a plastic zip-lock bag, labeled it as ‘AIR FROM DONDA DROP’ on eBay, set the price at $3,330.00 and waited for the bids to roll in. And sure enough, roll they did…

Read More »

Unique Service Lets You Rent Fat People by the Hour

A new Japanese service is drawing attention for allowing both individuals and companies to rent out “fat people” for 2,000 yen ($18) per hour.

Renting people for various purposes isn’t anything new in Japan. From renting someone to befriend your cheating partner’s lover and convince them to back off, to renting middle-aged men for company, the offers vary a lot, and starting this month you can add another option to the list – renting fat people. Called “Debucari”, the new service allows virtually anyone to rent a fat person by the hour. Apparently, fat people – over 100 kilograms – are somewhat of a rarity in Japan, so the entrepreneur behind the service thought that making them available via an online service would be a great business opportunity.

Read More »

China’s “Stone Village” Finds Success in Selling Ornamental River Stones

A small village located on the banks of the Yangtze River, in Sichuan Province, has become known as one of China’s premier suppliers of ornamental stones, generating millions of dollars in revenue every year.

Positioned in an idyllic location, right next to China’s largest river and surrounded by green, forest-covered mountains, Hejiaba village gets a decent number of tourists every year, but tourism isn’t the most profitable local business. That title goes to the collection and sale of ornamental river stones; not the small ones that fit in the pocket as good luck charms, but heavy boulders that enthusiasts all over China pay good money on to add them to their collections. It’s estimated that Hejiaba village generates around 20 million yuan ($3.08 million) annually from the sale of this virtually inexhaustible resource.

Read More »

This Man Makes a Living by Breaking Up Married Men from Their Mistresses

A 31-year-old “emotional counselor” specializes in breaking up married Chinese men from their mistresses and making sure they return to their wives, who are also his clients.

Xiao Sheng has been in the business of breaking up married men from their mistresses for six years, and has come a long way since he first started his unique business. He now has an 8-person staff working alongside him, including a situation analysts, and a customer service manager, as well as actors and directors ready to assist him when certain scenarios need to be staged. His techniques can get very complex, and very expensive, with the average contract costing the client a hefty 150,000 yuan ($23,000).

Read More »

Company Sells Bottled Fresh Air for Over $100 a Bottle

A UK company has sparked controversy online for selling glass bottles filled with the “freshest coastal air” for up to $105 per bottle.

Coast Capture Air started bottling fresh air and selling it as a souvenir and a talking point about the importance of clean air in the modern era, but then people from polluted areas of the world reportedly started buying these bottles for practical purposes, inhaling the clean coastal air every day. They told the company that it helped counter the harmful effects of air pollution, so it kept selling it and even attached a price tag that seems staggering for what is essentially an empty glass bottle – £75 ($105).

Read More »

Phone Booth-Like Office Spaces in Japan Allow People to Work From Virtually Anywhere

Telecubes, mobile offices the size of phone booths, have been popping up all over Japan, as demand for public working spaces continues to soar.

Japanese media originally reported on the rise of Telecubes back in 2019, when Mitsubishi Estate announced plans to start rolling out the tiny but cozy offices at airports and train stations all over the country, to help out remote workers. The idea was that having micro-offices available everywhere would make it easier for people to work near home or while on business trips, while enjoying privacy and quiet, which venues like coffee shops or shared offices can’t always offer. Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit, and the demand for Telecubes grew to unprecedented levels.

Read More »