‘I felt like a celebrity’: Personalized ads hit China metro stations as operators scramble for cash

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Hong Kong CNN —

Xiaotu was looking for a soulmate but the typical routes of meeting people on campus or swiping online dating apps just weren’t cutting it for him.

Instead, the 23-year-old decided to go big: paying 999 yuan (about $140) to place a personal advertisement on a gigantic 6.5 by 1.7 meter (21 by 5.5 feet) electronic billboard at his local subway station in China’s southern metropolis of Guangzhou.

The ad, which went up in May, showed a smiling Xiaotu in his best suit alongside a message and giant QR code that urged interested passengers to add the photography-loving Gen Z college graduate, star sign Libra, as a contact on social media platform WeChat.

During the ad’s five-day run, about 200 new friends added him on the app, said Xiaotu, who asked to go by a nickname to share personal details.

He is one of a wave of people taking out ads on subways in major cities across China, as the metro systems’ owners – mainly local governments – seek extra income while grappling with high debt and falling revenues.

In Guangzhou, where nearly half of the city’s 19 million population rides the subway each day, dozens of personalized ads have appeared in metro stations in recent months, showing everything from dating profiles to job-seeking notices, anniversary posters and birthday wishes.

Li Linyu's husband got a surprise birthday greeting on the Guangzhou metro.

Tech worker Li Linyu, 30, said placing an ad on the Guangzhou metro was a fun way to surprise her husband on his birthday.

Her self-designed ad showed several photos of her husband surrounded by cartoon