The rise of emotional companionship services: from “returning to the teacher in seconds” to regulatory challenges

At 11:30 in the middle of the night, 21-year-old Chen Xin (pseudonym), a "return teacher", received an order.

There was a young woman on the other end of the phone. After the call was connected, only bursts of noise came from the receiver. No matter how Chen Xin spoke, the other party never responded. About an hour later, the call ended and the other party sent her a message: "Thank you for staying with me."

This scene happened in January 2026 and was Chen Xin’s daily work. Chen Xin told reporters that "returning to work in seconds" is not a formal professional concept. As the name suggests, this job requires responding to customers' emotional outpourings in a timely manner after they place an order.

Chen Xin’s experience is a microcosm of the rapid rise of new emotional companionship businesses. The reporter's investigation found that in recent years, emotional companionship services with names such as "Return to Teacher", "Listening Teacher" and "Tree Hole" have emerged. This emerging industry wanders in the ambiguity between daily social interaction, business chatting and professional psychological consultation: practitioners do not need unified qualifications to accept orders, and may face risks such as emotional exhaustion and unclear career boundaries. For consumers, it is not clear whether the services purchased when they are emotionally fragile are "chat" or "consultation". When "listening" becomes a commodity, what is its value and where is its boundary? This is not only a problem that practitioners have to face, but also a test for how to supervise it.

Someone pays to "talk"

Ms. Pang, who lives in Guangdong, purchased a listening service for the first time during her graduation project last year. At that time, communication between her and her teammates was not smooth, and the progress of the project was hindered. The other party's accusations made her fall into self-doubt for several weeks.

In fact, Ms. Pang has no shortage of people to talk to. She has good friends around her, but troubles keep popping up, and it is difficult for her friends to spare time to listen to her at any time. Professional psychological counseling services require an appointment in advance. By chance, she came across a platform that provided listening services on social platforms, and she felt "like grabbing a life-saving straw." Late that night, she placed the order for a total of 90 minutes and renewed the order twice in the middle, pouring out all the grievances she had accumulated for weeks.

"Talk about life, gossip, emotions, and work" and "for the price of a cup of milk tea, I can keep you happy all day long"... The reporter searched on multiple platforms using the keywords "listening teacher" and "return to the teacher in seconds", and many similar service information popped up. The description of this type of service is straightforward, and most charge by the hour. The key promise is "continuous online response within the agreed time".

Mingyue (pseudonym), a "post-80s generation", once worked in the education industry and now works part-time as a "listener". "My clients are mainly middle-aged people, and what they pay to talk about is mostly the relationship between husband and wife, parent-child relationship, and workplace confusion. In fact, many people do not have psychological problems, but are depressed, empty, and have nothing to talk about." In Mingyue's view, what she is dealing with is not a pathological psychological disorder, but an emotional dilemma commonly faced by modern people.

The clients Chen Xin comes into contact with are mainly young people around the age of 20. Academic pressure, conflicts in the original family, interpersonal relationship difficulties and lovelorn are the most common topics. "Some people feel depressed due to a long-term lack of communication with their parents, some people fall into self-denial because of failure in exams, and some people simply can't find anyone around them to talk to."

The need is real, but not everyone is qualified for the job. Many practitioners told reporters that they discovered after actually entering the industry that the actual work was far more complicated than imagined.

Ms. Shen from Liaoning briefly participated in the "Listening Master" project of a certain platform. At first, she felt that she was good at listening to her friends, and people around her said she had strong empathy, so it shouldn't be difficult to do this job well. But when she actually connected with customers, she quickly discovered that there was a huge gap between her ideal and reality. "It's okay to chat with friends, but I feel at a loss when facing strangers. I have to think about just a few words for a long time, and after replying, I will also struggle with whether what I said is useful, which is very mentally draining." After several attempts, Ms. Shen gave up this part-time job.

Most practitioners are unqualified

In recent years, the emotional consumption market has expanded rapidly. According to the "Insight Report on China's Emotional Economy Consumption Trends 2025-2029" released by a research organization, China's emotional economy market will reach 2.7 trillion yuan in 2025 and is expected to reach 4.6 trillion yuan in 2029, showing a rapid growth trend.

Related businesses such as "Instant Return to Teacher" and "Listening Teacher" grew up in this kind of soil.

During interviews, many practitioners have thought about: What exactly are customers buying?

"At first I thought this job was just about chatting with people." After Mingyue took the order, she discovered that was not the case. If she wanted to do this job for a long time and do it well, she also needed to learn professional knowledge related to psychological counseling.

Ms. Sun, 36, who is engaged in related work in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, believes that this job is in a "gap" between professional psychological counseling and ordinary emotional talk. People who need psychological counseling sometimes cannot make appointments for face-to-face consultation every day. "What I am doing now is to fill this gap and help people find an outlet for their emotions."

However, reporters found in interviews that the scale and service boundaries of this "gap" are difficult to define in actual operations. In practice, most relevant practitioners do not need any professional qualifications to “take orders”. When reporters contacted "Miao Hui Shi" and "Listening Master" online, the other parties made it clear that they did not provide psychotherapy services.

"From a professional perspective in psychology, the core services provided by 'Return Master' and 'Listener Master' are emotional empathy and companionship response, which are essentially different from psychological counseling." Zhang Hui, associate professor of the Department of Medical Psychology at Capital Medical University, explained to reporters that psychological counseling is based on a systematic assessment framework, intervention techniques and ethical codes, with the purpose of promoting clients' cognitive, emotional and behavioral changes; emotional companionship services are closer to daily social support and do not involve diagnosis, assessment or treatment intentions.

Zhang Hui also pointed out that precisely because this type of service uses words such as “listening” and “empathy” in its form, it is easy for consumers to misunderstand a sense of “professionalism”. “Practitioners claiming ‘I am not a psychological counselor’ are essentially blurring professional boundaries. They want to use the professional trust of psychology to attract users, but are unwilling to assume corresponding professional responsibilities.” Zhang Hui believes that if professional intervention is not provided, professional psychological terminology should not be used; if used, it should accept professional ethical constraints.

Zhang Hui said that after the cancellation of the national professional qualification certification for psychological counselors in 2017, the "vacuum" of qualification certification allowed a large number of people without a psychology background to flood in. "This is not only a professional ethics issue, but also a legal issue. Practitioners who have not received systematic training and supervision will have a hard time judging whether they have crossed the line, and it will be difficult to fully protect themselves and those they serve."

The other side of blurred boundaries is the dilemma of practitioners themselves.

A female "listener" told reporters that she had received sexually suggestive messages from clients. At that time, she was worried that refusing directly would make her appear unable to accept the other party, so she did not end the conversation in time. Only later did she realize that this was harassment. Another practitioner described job burnout this way: “It feels like I am sacrificing myself to take on other people’s emotions. Other people’s negative emotions are coming towards me, and I need to constantly empty myself, which consumes a lot of energy.”

Zhang Hui analyzed: "The practitioner who dared not refuse sexual suggestions just shows that there is an obvious lack of professional ethics education and boundary awareness training in the industry. Practitioners do not know where their 'professional boundaries' are, and they do not know that 'unconditional acceptance' in psychological counseling does not include behavior that crosses the boundary." " Zhang Hui suggested that occupational safety standards for "emotional labor" can be established at the institutional level; from a psychological perspective, mandatory pre-job ethics training should be implemented and supported by regular psychological support mechanisms, such as platforms providing anonymous channels for practitioners and crisis referral processes.

Legal and Ethical Guidelines

It is worth noting that the policy framework surrounding the emotional economy is gradually being established. In January 2026, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Work Plan for Accelerating the Cultivation of New Growth Points in Service Consumption" which clearly stated that "support the construction of several new emotional and experiential service consumption scenarios with strong consumption-driving effects" and support the inclusion of relevant new occupations in the national occupational classification system.

The interviewed experts believe that as a new consumption model for paying to “listen”, the legitimate rights and interests of consumers need to be taken seriously.

Weng Xiaoping, a lawyer at Kyoto Law Firm who has long studied consumer rights protection issues, pointed out that after consumers who are at a low emotional state purchase listening services, the content of their conversations is subject to privacy protection; if practitioners leak customer privacy, consumers should obtain corresponding legal remedies. In addition, if practitioners make inappropriate responses (such as wrong advice, forced intervention) to consumers in psychological crisis due to lack of professional training, the resulting damage shall be borne by the individual practitioners and the platform according to the specific circumstances.

Regarding this emerging business format, Zhang Hui suggested adopting hierarchical and classified management: Pure emotional companionship services can be managed as general commercial services (social services); when the service content involves emotional assessment, crisis identification or behavioral intervention, it should be included in the supervision of mental health services. Practitioners need to master at least basic psychological knowledge and have crisis referral awareness.

Zhang Hui mentioned that supervision does not need to set too high entry barriers immediately, but it must draw clear red lines. Relevant departments can jointly develop a list of prohibited behaviors, and practitioners are strictly prohibited from implying that they provide "psychotherapy" services; personnel without professional training are not allowed to undertake conversations on high-risk topics such as "suicide" and "self-injury" on their own, and crisis referrals should be initiated immediately. The psychology community and relevant industry associations should actively participate in the formulation of professional ethics standards to help practitioners develop sustainable practices and professional protection, and also let consumers understand whether what they are buying is "listening" or "treatment." "Relying on legal protection and ethical guidance, new business formats can achieve long-term development."

Reporter's Notes

During the interview process, reporters almost always received responses from practitioners late at night, because this is usually their working time - when most people are preparing to fall asleep, it is when others need to be heard most. At present, "paying someone to be online" has become a pragmatic choice for these people in their vulnerable moments.

But the more real the demand, the more sober examination is needed. The most subtle thing about this industry is that what it sells is not standardized goods, but the softest emotional connection between people. Once a connection is established, boundaries become critical—when practitioners should listen, when they should refer, and when they should say “no”; whether consumers buy companionship or dependence, catharsis or misdirection. There are no ready answers to these questions, but they are directly related to the rights and security of both parties.

From the perspective of the rule of law, the growth of any emerging business format is accompanied by gaps in rules. Emotional companionship is no exception: who will identify qualifications, who will set service standards, how to divide the responsibilities for privacy leaks and inappropriate interference, where are the boundaries of obligations between platforms and practitioners... How to find a balance between "release" and "management" to not only protect consumers and practitioners, but also open up a new path for reasonable emotional companionship channels, which will test the refined level of governance.

In today's increasingly affluent world, "being heard" is still a scarce commodity. I hope this industry will grow within regulations, and I also look forward to the day when everyone can find a safe and reliable outlet when they need to talk.

Source: Rule of Law Daily

Reporter: Zhao Li

Intern of this newspaper: Lu Yingge