A "new" app with an orange icon: Hong Kong's legacy foreign-helper matchmaking platform HelperLibrary splits itself in two

"HelperLibrary Job Finder" on Google Play gained 13.6k installs in 80 days and sits on the free business-category charts in Hong Kong and the Philippines. It looks like a new product gaining momentum. In reality it's the Hong Kong foreign-helper matchmaking platform "幫家館" that has run for a decade. For its tenth-anniversary redesign, it split one app into an employer version and a helper version, then persuaded its old users to install the new one, one by one. No new demand appeared. An established platform is moving house. What's worth learning is how it charges and how it splits the product, not copying it.

"The orange one is for the helpers"

On October 21 and 22, the app got about 1,470 installs a day on Google Play, four to five times its usual rate. Over the same stretch, its Facebook page posted: "ORANGE ORANGE 🍊! HelperLibrary has 2 APPS. Vitamin C = Chances! Orange is for Helpers", and the next post explained: "Search JOB HelperLibrary in the App Store or Play Store."

The old app's listing is more direct. The legacy package, online since 2016 and with 277k cumulative installs, now opens its store description with: "HelperLibrary has 2 versions. If you are helper, please install the orange logo HelperLibrary!!" The iOS employer version's description also added a capitalized "IMPORTANT" line: this version is for employers, the orange one is for helpers, so check before installing.

The official YouTube channel posted several short videos titled "HelperLibrary New Version is here!" and "Get started with the HelperLibrary APP (2026 Version)," the latter posted in Sep 4 and reaching 94 views by early November. The Facebook video for the "tenth-anniversary new look" has 655 views. The reach is modest, but the audience is precise: the helpers already using it.

So the most likely explanation for that spike is a concentrated notification to existing users (inferred; Meta ads may also have run, which we didn't check).

What it is and where the money comes from

HelperLibrary (幫家館, developer Bingomatch Limited) is a platform that matches Hong Kong employers directly with foreign domestic helpers. It has operated since 2016 and was covered by the South China Morning Post in 2015. Helpers build profiles on it, record voice and video introductions, and chat directly with employers. Listings are sorted into categories such as "contract completion," "beginner," "childcare," "Cantonese speaker," and "cooking," with job duties, salary, holidays, and accommodation shown up front. For helpers it's completely free, and the store page says "No placement fee."

The money comes entirely from employers (official site, 11-06):

The membership page says "one-time payment, no auto-renewal" twice. Traditional Hong Kong agencies that handle everything usually charge more (the commonly quoted range is HK$7,000–13,000, unverified). This app's pitch is "a cheaper licensed agency service."

Looked at this way, the helper version earns nothing on its own. Its job is to supply the employer side: the more helpers and the fuller their profiles, the more willing employers are to pay that HK$398. Employers are clearly paying. The employer iOS app once reached #27 on the Hong Kong Top Grossing chart.

How the 13.6k installs happened

Google Play numbers (11-06): launched Aug 17, Sep 19 632 installs, Oct 20 6,553 installs, Oct 29 11,081 installs, Nov 5 13,611 installs. Last 7 days: 2,530 new installs. Normally one to two hundred to four hundred a day. No public rating yet. It has charted in only two places: Hong Kong Business Top Free at #36–#42 and the Philippines at #46–#72. Since late October it has been slowly sliding. Those charts are easy to get into; a few hundred installs a day can be enough.

The iOS helper app came earlier, launching in Jun 24, but it still has only 0 ratings.

Where users come from, by weight:

• Existing users switching over (evidence-backed): the old app's store description, the Facebook page, and YouTube Shorts all say the same thing: "Helpers, install the orange one."
• Facebook pages: separate pages for the employer and helper apps. The helper community mostly lives in Facebook groups anyway.
• Employer-side content site: blog.helperlibrary.com publishes "how to hire a domestic helper" guides in Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, English and Indonesian, plus tools for salary, leave, contract-renewal reminders and termination calculations. It captures Hong Kong employers searching "how to hire a helper." More employers means more jobs for helpers to apply to.
• Word of mouth: in May 2025 someone on r/HongKong compared it with HelperChoice and concluded it was "cheaper, more transparent, and better on mobile." A parenting forum (baby-kingdom) discussed it as cheaper than walk-in agencies. Sparse, but the people talking are employers.
• TikTok shows no relevant videos. Nobody on X has mentioned it in the past year.

Who it's competing with

This is an old market that took shape over 2015 to 2018 years. HelperLibrary is itself one of the early players, and there are no new copycats.

On product features it barely differs from HelperPlace. The only real differences are: the employer and helper sides are split into two apps, and the employer side sells a cheap licensed agency service. And those 13.6k installs didn't come from either of those points. They came from migration.

Three things worth learning

A two-sided marketplace can be split into two apps. Helpers search "job" in the store, employers search "hire" or "helper." One app struggles to rank for both. Splitting lets each side have its own store keywords and language. The cost is visible too: existing users have to reinstall, and it takes a round of notifications to move them.

Charge one side, and charge once. The supply side (helpers) is free, to grow the pool. The demand side (employers) buys access for 30 / 60 / 90 days, clearly stated as non-auto-renewing. Hiring a helper happens once every year or two, so subscriptions breed complaints, while a one-time "HK$70 more for 30 more days" sells well. The big money is in the agency services that come later.

Use tool pages to capture demand. Salary, leave, renewal reminders and form downloads each target a term employers search for, and each page leads to the membership page.

If it were you

The short verdict: don't copy this app. Its volume comes from a decade of existing users moving over, which a newcomer can't get. Hong Kong's slot is already held by bigger players like HelperPlace. What's worth taking is its pricing structure and its split-apps approach.

Who it suits: people who already have access to a labour corridor: licensed agencies, operators of helper or domestic-worker communities, and teams that understand local employment rules and want to move an offline business online.

Who it doesn't suit: someone who can write code and wants to build a "helper job-finding app" from scratch to grow traffic. Cold-starting a two-sided marketplace is hard, visa services require licences and offline staff, and Hong Kong is already crowded.

How to build it: if you have a corridor, copy the structure: a free helper app (profiles, video or audio self-introductions, categorised by skill), a one-time membership fee for employers priced by days, and visa, medical checks and insurance bundled as high-ticket agency services. First check whether the destination country requires an agency licence and whether employers may hire directly. That decides whether this is possible at all.

How to acquire users: for the supply side, go to Facebook groups and communities. For the demand side, publish local-language "how to hire a helper" guides and calculators to capture search traffic.

Is there a window? No time window. This is a slow business.

What would show I got it wrong: if the helper app's daily installs stay around a few hundred over the next few months, or it starts charting in countries beyond Hong Kong and the Philippines, that would mean it's not just migration but genuinely acquiring new helpers. Then it would be worth looking again at where its new helpers come from.