Chinese man charges people for 'itch-scratching,' makes whopping Rs 14 lakh monthly

A Chinese entrepreneur has found a rather unusual way to make people relax, by charging them to scratch their backs. And business, apparently, is good.

Thirty-two-year-old Zhang Xiaoqiao has opened two “itch-scratching” stores in Shenzhen, southern China, where customers pay staff to gently scratch their bodies using specially designed long, pointed nails.

According to a report by South China Morning Post, Zhang opened his first outlet in Baoan District in May and followed it with a second store in Futian District a month later. The businesses operate under the name Suma and offer the scratching sessions in a setup resembling a massage parlour, with customers lying face down while staff work on their backs and other areas.

The service costs 300 yuan (around US$40) for an hour. Zhang said it was designed to help customers unwind, reduce stress and potentially sleep better. Staff may also focus on particular itchy spots, with the sensation sometimes making customers laugh.

Speaking to the South China Morning Post, Zhang said the idea made sense in cities where people deal with high levels of stress and claimed there was considerable demand for the service.

The business has already attracted enough customers to make the numbers work. Zhang told the SCMP that the two outlets together bring in about 100,000 yuan (around Rs 14,18,210) in gross revenue each month and have reached the break-even stage while beginning to make a profit.

His customers include both men and women, although men make up roughly 70 per cent of the clientele. Zhang told the SCMP that some returning customers had even described the experience as more relaxing than a conventional massage.

Since there was no established industry to learn from, Zhang said he had to develop the techniques himself and figure out what kind of scratching would offer customers the most relaxing experience.

The business idea came after Zhang stumbled upon a short video last year showing a woman scratching her husband’s back. He noticed viewers joking in the comments that they would happily pay someone to do the same for them.

That reminded him of his own childhood, when his father would scratch his back and help him drift off to sleep. The memory eventually became the unlikely inspiration for his latest business.

Zhang was no stranger to failed ventures. The Hubei native reportedly went through seven jobs in a single year after graduating from university. Before turning 30, he had started two cross-border e-commerce companies, neither of which worked out. He later tried his hand at the social-media content industry, but that venture also failed to gain much traction.

Now, he wants to turn itch-scratching into something far bigger than two stores.

Zhang told the South China Morning Post that he hoped to eventually open 100 outlets across China and establish scratching as a recognised profession.

The unusual business has predictably become a talking point on Chinese social media, where some users were curious enough to consider trying it, while others remained unconvinced that people would actually pay 300 yuan simply to be scratched.

One user even asked Zhang whether he was taking apprentices, saying they wanted to learn from him and open a similar store in Shanghai.

Another admitted that the concept sounded surprisingly appealing as a way to relax.

But not everyone was sold. One sceptical user questioned whether there were really enough people willing to spend 300 yuan on an hour of professional itch-scratching.

For Zhang, however, the experiment appears to be working, and he is now betting that what began as a childhood memory could become an entirely new service industry.