Huge drawings in a rice paddy depict scenes from a traditional Chinese romantic legend involving a human and a fairy in Yancheng, East China's Jiangsu Province. It was made to welcome Qixi Festival which is also known as Chinese Valentine's Day on Wednesday. Photo: VCG

Many Chinese couples headed out on Saturday to celebrate China's traditional Qixi Festival, or Chinese Valentine's Day. But as couples celebrated, lonely singles turned to the internet for solace, with online chatting services nicknamed "lonely frog" emerging as a particularly popular choice.

The name of the service in Chinese is gugua frog, which gugua means lonely, but the word also sounds similar to the Chinese onomatopoeia for the sound a frog makes, thus leading to the "lonely frog" nickname.  

In brief, lonely frog is a type of chatting service in which clients can add chatting teams on Wechat and start cheerful or funny conversations so they can feel less lonely. 

The service has been particularly popular as a gift among young Chinese netizens. On Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao, there are nearly 100 shops offering this particular service, with prices running between 2 to 40 yuan (30 cents to $6) per times. One of the most successful shops has monthly sales passing the 30,000 mark. 

"Most of our clients were ordering the service for their friends. Women make up a majority of customers [who buys the service]," a customer service representative of an online shop offering Lonely Frog services told the Global Times on Sunday.    

Content-wise, chats are divided into different types such as "stop being single reminder," in which chat teams encourage a client to seek out romantic relationships, and also "frog consolation," in which the chat team plays the role of counselor to cheer up gloomy customers. 

"We have different price levels, the cheapest one being the 'five minute gugua.' If it involves deeper communication, it will be more expensive," said another online shop.

This slightly quirky service has intrigued many netizens, with some saying that even though it seems pointless and slightly annoying, participating was still able to give them a feeling of friendship. 

"My friend and I used to hang out a lot before she got a boyfriend. She ordered this service to mess around with me. It made me smile because of how weird and annoying it is… it is a type of gift that only really close friends would think to give to each other," Cherry, a customer, told the Global Times. 

Some other customers confirmed that the new service has made them feel less lonely, and expressed that it is a cool thing to show off on their social media channels. 

"I do feel a bit down when I'm alone, but talking to the 'frog' (employee) was a distraction keeping me from thinking about being single," said Xin, another person who frequents the service. 

"I got a lot of comments by posting my experience on WeChat… doing such a random fun thing shows my personality too," Xin added. 

"People choosing such services show that the increased single population has become a business opportunity. This particular consumer group is especially big in Chinese metropolises. They are focused on pleasing themselves and showing who they are," Wang Qiuming, a business observer, told the Global Times. 

In 2018, around 77 million single adults lived alone in China. This number is expected to increase to 92 million in 2021.