Australian startup Friends for Hire lets friendless people hire other people to be their friend. The service is about to launch on March 22, according to iT Wire Co-founder Josh Blundell described the site to Business Insider: “It’s definitely not a dating website. It’s for people who are lonely, without the expectation that things will move beyond a platonic friendship. If anyone was found to be outside the terms of service, we would remove them from the site.”
If you’re a lonely Australian resident or just someone looking for a concert or hiking buddy, a new website could help pair you up with a real-life friend. Friends for Hire is set to launch on March 22. The idea behind the friend-finding service is to give terminally shy users the gift of IRL companionship on a night-by-night basis—or longer, if the chemistry is there. “Every member and friend [relationship] is going to be different, depending on what their needs are,” Josh Blundell, one of the site’s three co-creators, told WA Today. Users pay a weekly fee of $5 to access the site. The professional friends (I’m assuming that’s their title) can charge up to $60 per hour for friendship. According to WA Today, over 1,500 people have already pre-registered for the service.
