Chinese mobile app offering thugs for hire removed from Android store

SHANGHAI, April 22 (UPI) -- A mobile app that allowed users to hire thugs for attacks on other people was removed from China's Android store after reports emerged the app enabled criminal activity.

The app, Didi Da Ren, worked like Uber in its crowd-sourcing capabilities, hiring would-be fighters like freelance drivers, reported The China Times.

The creators of the app, Changsha Zhang Kong Information Technology Ltd., said the company did not allow posters seeking potential criminals. Rather, the app was designed to match workers with temp work, and not to assail victims despite what its Chinese name indicated, which means to "beat people."

A Chinese reporter working undercover exposed the developer after offering 32 cents for a beating and an anonymous user answered the post with a phone number and his price range, $32 to $80, for a physical attack.

The smartphone app had already been downloaded 40,000 times since it was removed from the Android store. Users, however, can still find it at third-party stores.

Screen grabs showed users seeking the services of retired soldiers, gangsters and former criminals, The Independent reported.

The app's name was identical to the one jokingly proposed by an online Chinese talk show and also bears resemblance to the name of a Uber-like Chinese app, Didi Dache.

The South China Morning Post reported there were 649 million Internet users on mainland China in 2014, 557 million of whom were mobile users.