By Fazleena Aziz
It comes as no surprise that varsity students in Malaysia are seeking sugar daddies to support them or in essence to help them keep up with their lifestyle and financial woes.
In a recent article published by Malay Mail and several news sites, Malaysia has some 42,500 sugar daddies, placing itself third in Asia.
A survey by the world’s largest sugar dating site, SeekingArrangement said that those in the high-tertiary category were more vulnerable to this trend.
The site chief executive officer Brandon Wade said the wealth gap in Asia between the rich and poor is among the top reasons women are seeking older men for varied reasons.
He added that his platform helps connect young and empowered women with affluent men to help them financially and act as a mentor or gateway in catapulting a promising future for sugar babies.
Wade also noted the rapidly growing Asian economies are also attracting many foreign investors to set up businesses in the region.
“Thus, it is really no shocker why Asia seems to be a hotbed for sugar dating, especially among the urban demographics,” he said in a statement.
The survey also revealed that India tops Asia’s list with 338,000 (or 61 per cent of the total 556,000) sugar daddies in the region, while Indonesia reigns second with 60,250.
Japan (32,500) comes in at fourth and Hong Kong (28,600) at fifth with Taiwan (27,300), Vietnam (12,000), South Korea (7,000), Sri Lanka (5,000) and Cambodia (3,500) in the list by SeekingArrangement.
In terms of the varsity students, Sunway University tops the list of Sugar babies (3105), followed by INTI International University (2624), Taylor’s University (1696) and TAR University College (1600).
Malaysia’s top university, University Malaya is also on the list with 1280 sugar babies followed Monash University (960), LimKokWing University (864), University of Nottingham (832), Multimedia University (768) and not forgetting Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) with 704.
These shocking numbers were revealed by a survey done by Sugarbook, another online dating site to meet sugar daddies.
Sugarbook also showed that the average allowance of a sugar baby who is aged about 23 years old, is RM 2500 while the sugar daddies rake in about RM 150,000.
National Student Consultative Council president Muhammad Amir Asyraf Mohd Sabri was quoted in Berita Harian saying, the report by the sites needs to be looked at earnestly.
He said based on the record there is a 40 per cent increase in new registration via the site (Sugarbook), which is directly related to the desperation faced by students during the Covid-19 global pandemic.
Amir added that this also reflects gravity in the decline of morality rate and the continuous financial turmoil faced by students.
“I would like to urge all parties to look into this matter seriously because the rate of such an immoral act among varsity students is worrying,” he said.
Bernama reported that the High Court has issued a remand order for seven days against the founder of Sugarbook on Friday (Feb 19).
The remand order was issued by Judge Datuk Noorin Badaruddin after a review application by Selangor prosecution director Muhammad Iskandar Ahmad, whose application was rejected by the High Court on Thursday.
Justice Noorin issued the order after the 34-year-old suspect agreed to be held in remand to facilitate investigation under Section 505 (b) of the Penal Code and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.
It is learnt that police initiated investigations into the dating website after it named 10 public and private universities as having the most students who chose to become “sugar babies” and sought “sugar daddies” to finance their lifestyles.
To contact this reporter, email: editor@dailystraits.com
For interview requests and press releases, please contact us at editor@dailystraits.com. For advertising inquiries, please email sales@dailystraits.com. Thank you.