[Editor’s Note]
Young people like trendy gadgets. The popularity of the two-dimensional culture has allowed businesses to discover many business opportunities. Various board game shops focusing on “accompaniment” and “experience” have launched the so-called “maid” or “deacon”. Service personnel come to attract consumers. The threshold for investment in this kind of emerging industries is not high, and the unit price is not low. Can it really make a profit in a few months as investors say? Is the experience service under the banner of “accompaniment” standardized? The news industry observation and industry survey column “Pain Points” launched the topic “”Accompanying Economy” AB Side”, which showed the current situation of the industry by visiting board game stores, interviewing lawyers and industry insiders.
Beautiful and handsome “little brothers” and “little sisters” accompany consumers to chat, play board games, play games, and even provide “Outbound” service. An employee of the deacon’s shop once told reporters, “The yardstick of hooking hands and hooking arms is mainly based on personal wishes. If you don’t want to, you can’t force it. Everyone has different boundaries, and the main thing depends on the individual.”
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Where is the business boundary? Attribute definition is questionable
Beijing Zhongwen Law Firm Zhang Xinnian, lawyer believes that “there is no prohibition by law” for private business entities, that is, a maid shop , Deacon shops are a kind of commercial innovation, as long as they do not violate laws and regulations, they can provide such a service to customers. If “pornographic” content is involved in this kind of service, it will naturally be regulated by the law, and if the circumstances constitute a crime, it can be dealt with in accordance with the criminal law.
And the reason why everyone is “sensitive” to the services provided by maid shops and deacon shops is because this is a new industry and consumers feel unfamiliar and fearful of its business model .
Zhang Xinnian gave an example to reporters. Housekeeping services also include door-to-door services. Chess and card room operations may also have operational risks. However, under the premise of not violating the law, the market will It is necessary to tolerate innovative business models, and “it is impossible to introduce corresponding laws and regulations for so many innovative service formats. It is unrealistic and unscientific.”
The law does not impose too many restrictions, so is there any management basis for reference in the operation of maid and deacon shops?
According to the “Regulations on the Administration of Entertainment Places”, the local cultural authority of the store will operate such business premisesQualifications are checked, and Article 14 of the Regulations stipulates that “it is not allowed to provide or engage in for-profit escort for persons entering entertainment venues”. 
Does this regulation also apply to maids, Where is the deacon’s shop?
Zhao Cong, a partner of Beijing Zhongwen Law Firm, pointed out that this clause is an important legal basis for combating “escort” services and is widely applied. If the maid board game shop is positioned as an entertainment venue, its business model of “accompanying in the store, accompany play outside” and “accompanying the maid” as the main selling point is in line with the situation of “providing profitable escort”, it will be covered by this provision. Regulation has become the main risk in the business process.
But the existing “maid” and “deacon” board game experience stores are in a gray area. Such places are not over-regulated. The main reason is “entertainment”. Location”.
Article 2 of the State Council’s “Administrative Measures for Entertainment Places” further specifies: “The term “entertainment venues” in the “Regulations” refers to the Singing, dancing, amusement and other venues for self-entertainment. Singing and dancing entertainment venues refer to business venues that provide accompaniment music, song on-demand services or providing dance music and dancing venue services; amusement entertainment venues refer to games and entertainment services provided through game amusement equipment Business premises.”
Therefore, the identification of entertainment venues has three key elements: 1. For profit; 2. Open to the public; 3. Consumer self-entertainment Happy.
It is understood that local governments have basically included ordinary board game shops into the category of entertainment venues. For example, in the “I want to open a tabletop game shop”, the Beijing Municipal Government explicitly cited the provisions of the “Regulations on the Administration of Entertainment Places” and required business operators to submit the “Application Registration Form for Entertainment Places” to include the tabletop game shop The category of amusement and entertainment venues. According to the “Notice of the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government on Approving and Transmitting the Opinions of the Municipal Rectification Office on Reorganizing and Regulating the Entertainment and Service Industries Related to Public Security”, the Shanghai Municipal Government has also clearly included the business-type chess and card room into the management scope of entertainment venues.
However, the maid’s board game shop has different characteristics from the ordinary board game shop. The ordinary board game shop is responsible for providing venues, card equipment, etc., and the players organize the game by themselves to achieve For entertainment purposes; but the maid coffee shop is providing related hardware facilitiesIn addition, service personnel are also arranged to participate in the board game process, and some businesses even provide outbound accompany play services, which have a certain service nature and do not meet the requirements of “consumers’ self-entertainment”.
Therefore, the maid coffee shop may be regarded as an entertainment venue that provides for-profit escort, or it may be directly excluded from the entertainment venue.
Do not use appearance as the threshold
According to the opinions of the two legal professionals, whether it is from the interpretation of the regulations or the practical possibility However, it is still difficult to require standardized operations for maids and deacon shops. So from the perspective of the business, is there any way to maintain the healthy development of the industry?
In this regard, Wu Dongyuan, a lecturer in the Department of Business Administration of the School of Management of Fudan University, believes that the reason why most people talk about “maid” and “deacon” is that the store employs people Take “look” as one of the recruitment criteria. From the perspective of recruitment, work content and work ability should be the criteria for recruitment. Taking appearance as a particularly important recruitment indicator may be part of the reason why people have colored glasses.
To get rid of prejudice and promote the healthy development of the industry, companies can consider de-gendering and de-appearing. At present, the companionship services of maids and deacons are more aimed at young people’s loneliness in making friends of the opposite sex, but in fact, the practitioners and audiences of companionship services can be more extensive and diverse.
Wu Dongyuan pointed out that the importance of social companionship to people’s physical and mental health has been widely supported in research. From the perspective of companion service, some scholars have confirmed that one-to-one companionship by volunteers can improve the health of people with poor physical and mental health.
“So in the future, will there be more forms of companionship, such as caring companionship for people with poor health, family care for the empty nest elderly, and living alone In order to improve the physical and mental health of the audience? Such companionship may have a wider audience and have more social value.” Wu Dongyuan said.
In order to relieve loneliness, people will actively expand social channels to get more social opportunities. The emergence of the companion economy also caters to the social needs of some people. In fact, people are not unfamiliar with the companionship economy. For example, watching bloggers’ live broadcasts and playing games with them is a more popular form of the companionship economy. The reason behind it is the loneliness of modern people.