The Chinese Government is Forcing an App With 30 Million Users to Shut Down

Last week, a number of major news outlets, including us (LOL at considering ourselves a “major news outlet”), reported on a 19-year-old girl in Shanghai making posts on the internet seeking a “temporary boyfriend” with whom she would sleep with at night in exchange for her travel accommodations being taken care of.

Well, folks, it appears that we’ve been had. This story is a hoax fabricated by a Shanghai-based app company to promote their hookup app Youjia.

Another fake story released by the company told of a 21-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman who meet via Youjia and decided to have sex while stuck in an elevator in Shanghai’s Putuo District.

But unlike how these things are dealt with here in the states — which would be pretty much nothing, except for public scrutiny — the Chinese government is showing, once again, that they don’t mess around.  According to Shanghai Daily, Youjia, which has 30 million users, has been ordered to shut down and will be banned nationwide.

“The company crossed the line for promotion,” Shanghai’s State Internet Information Office said in a statement.

The development company behind the app has admitted their fault and has promised to solve this matter with regulators in the best way possible.

I guess when it comes to China, there is such a thing as going too far in your growth-hacking antics.