This Japanese firm lets customers hire people to take selfies with them

Now you can pretend to be more popular than you actually are by getting people to pose with you for photos on social media – at a price of course. A Japanese company called Family Romance has started a new service called Real Appeal that dispatches staff members to pose with you in ‘photo-ops’.

You even get to select the age, gender, and appearance of your companions at different events which could range from just a simple photo to drinks or even a large birthday party. According to the website, some customers use the app to give the impression that they have a ‘nice network of connections’.

Although the service claims to offer 'unlimited pictures for social networking that are free of charge', hiring the Real Appeal staff can cost you up to 8,000 yen (Rs.4583) for just two hours.