Coming soon to China: a mobile, on-demand massage service called Nanapanda

Has your back ever felt so bad that you don’t even want to leave the house to get a massage? In China, there’s an app for that. Or at least there will be. Nanapanda, an O2O massage booking service whose app hasn’t actually launched yet, claims it will offer hourlong full-body massages and shorter head and neck massages you can enjoy at home or at the office.

Why book your massage for your home or office rather than simply visiting a spa? Nanapanda’s website claims that because your masseuse doesn’t have to pay for the physical location where the massage is happening, its services will be as much as 50 percent cheaper than comparable retail massages. Plus, the site claims, its masseuses will all be specially selected with years of experience and standardized training. Nanapanda has reportedly already begun operations in four major southern cities: Shanghai, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou.

China’s massage market is massive – you can barely walk a block in many Chinese cities without coming across a salon or spa that offers massage services. If an O2O massage service like Nanapanda could achieve the market penetration China’s O2O car services like Kuaidi Dache have been getting (for example), the windfall for investors could be huge.

But it’s an open secret that at many retail massage locations, sexual services are also available. China’s net users are already wondering whether Nanapanda might be used the same way: the comments section of a Sina Tech feature on the app is full of snarky remarks about how the app might be abused by the sex industry. Prostitution is no joke, though: it’s a serious potential source of liability for Nanapanda, and since services are performed in the client’s home it would be extremely difficult to police. Another major potential area of liability for Nanapanda is health: if a masseuse screws up and injures a client, who is responsible? The company could potentially be on the hook for some expensive medical bills and damages. And of course, masseuses could also be at risk if they step into the home of a client who ends up being a criminal.

Nanapanda is planning for nationwide expansions, but it will be fascinating to see how the public and authorities react as the service grows in terms of name recognition and userbase. O2O services in all sorts of industries are growing like weeds in China, but will home-delivery massage prove to be a bridge too far?