On Douban, a Chinese social networking website, there is a group named “Away from the screen,” which was formed in 2020 and now has over 30,000 members who are striving to break their phone addiction.
As more people have become concerned about spending too much time on mobile phones and are struggling to break the habit businesses offering to help users overcome phone addiction are thriving.
“The market has great prospects for growth because numerous apps make it difficult for people to put down their phones once they pick them up,” said Liu Yang, 36, owner of Shiguang Box, which sells “phone isolation boxes” that it says help people reduce screen time.
It requires four simple steps to separate the phone from its owner; open the box, place the phone inside, close it, and set a lock timer. The phone can only be accessed once the timer ends.
According to Liu, he receives up to 800 inquiries about the box every day and sells up to 2,000 different types of boxes each month on Taobao, an online shopping platform owned by Alibaba Group which owns the South China Morning Post.
While most of his customers are students preparing for college or graduate school admission exams, some are in their 30s, 40s, and even older, said Liu.
Some people even order self-designed boxes with motivating words printed on them, he said.
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