Across China: Anything and everything delivered to your doorstep

It should have been a busy weekend of planning for Beijing resident Lin Yan. She had plans to order a massage for her mother, clean the air conditioners, get a manicure and invite a chef to prepare dinner for her friends at home.

But thanks to the growing scope of services found on the web -- she easily arranged everything to be delivered with a few clicks.

Delegating chores to professional service providers has become the latest trend in China, as companies woo customers to click and deliver.

There are several new services now offered. E-laundry collects your dirty shirts for dry cleaning; Woodpecker offers washing machine cleaning and repair; Daojia, or Come to Home in English, delivers hot Starbucks coffee to your workplace and trendy Helijia, translated as Beaver's Home, brings manicure and hair salons to your home.

"Ordering through apps can save work and time for us, and create business for the companies," said Lin.

Start-up companies with an Internet plus strategy have cropped up in the past two years in China, mobilizing armies of scooter-riding express delivery boys, cleaning ladies and manicurists who carry gigantic boxes.

"It has made life and spending easier," Lin said. "We used to say the 'consumer is god', now I feel like I really am in control."

"Consumer is god" used to be the motto of China's consumer protection drive, which was popular in the 1980s when the market economy began growing. In the age of Internet, the motto has taken on a fresh meaning.

"The internet has made the marketplace all about precise positioning and individualized service. It allows customers to enjoy services at the time, location and price they are happy with," said Meng Xing, CEO of Helijia.

In Helijia, one can choose her manicurist based on location, merit or price. The price can be as low as 9.9 yuan for first-time users.

Select one manicurist and she will come at your appointment time, with a toolkit weighing around 10kg. When the nails are done, you pay on the app via Alipay and the app will ask you to rate the manicurist.

Wen Ding has polished nails for 27 women, and she is only one-star. "I have to get good comments and offer more service to improve my rating," she said.

Helijia now hires more than 2,000 manicurists across China, and customers have reached one million. Appointments average 5,000 per day.

The app is scaling up in popularity, but not in profit.

"Most of the money now goes to the manicurists because we would like to keep the skilled ones, and on the other side, we want to cultivate consumer behavior. Once they like the app, they will use it again. There will be profit in the future," Meng said.

Meng claims Helijia is able to charge a lower price since it does away with the fixed costs of running a store. Now it has expanded its business scope to hairstyling, massage, fitness and makeup.

According to I-research, a website which regularly polls online behaviors, the market of service apps has reached 235 billion yuan in 2014, and the number is expected to double in 2017, as more young people opt for the deliver-to-your-door services.

For the moment, however, not all are convinced of such services.

"I' m cautious to let these people come to my home, because I have a kid at home. If I want these services, I would find someone I'm familiar with, not a total stranger," said Lu, a young mother. Endi