Taobao’s New Service: Pretty Girls to Deliver Your Goods

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any more ridiculous. Last year, we marveled over the latest courier services offered by certain e-commerce sites, in which deliverymen would wait outside your door while you tried on purchases and then haul away anything you didn’t want. Now check out Tao Girls, a platform Taobao has been running quietly for the past couple of years. Over 40,000 young women have set up “modeling kiosks” on the site to show off their looks and senses of style, and to promote themselves to various modeling agencies. It seems that Taobao is currently in talks to expand the function of Tao Girls, giving customers the option of choosing a prospective model to deliver goods to your home for a small fee.

The concept was originally introduced as an April Fool’s joke. On April 1, Alibaba Group vice president Tao Ran wrote on his Weibo: “Taobao department is working with a logistics company to allow customers to choose Tao girls in the same city to deliver goods. Delivery cost will be slightly higher.”

The following day, on account of the enthusiasm shown by netizens, Tao Ran announced that “Tao Girls [as couriers] has been taken into consideration.”

China Broadcast Web reports that the service will cost an additional RMB 10 (USD 1.58). InventorSpot.com notes that the idea wouldn’t be difficult to execute: “Taobao has easy access to a large, self-selecting pool of attractive young women who might jump at the chance to make extra money delivering packages in the area.”

We’re a little more doubtful. Would it be safe? Would your packages arrive in a timely manner? Many of these details have yet to be worked out. Taobao, meanwhile, is refraining from making any official comments.

Most of the active user profiles are concentrated in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and, you guessed it, Beijing. There are 166 pages of profiles in our humble city alone. Personally, we’re a bit creeped out by the information listed: weight, height, rates (for modeling), and number of fans.

Tell us: Would you use this service? Why or why not? Share your comments below.