Close
Exit

I STARTED my research on young sugar babies with an account on Seeking Arrangement, a sugar daddy website that makes US$10 million (RM36 million) a year. Business is booming, obviously!

Minutes later, I was officially a sugar baby for sale, (price: negotiable). Within a day, I had two messages from sugar daddies, each boasting a net worth of US$1 million (RM3.6 million).

The money-for-companionship aspect of this arrangement is super in-your-face – sugar babies state a price range, and sugar daddies advertise their annual income. The lowest I saw was a cool US$75,000 (RM271,000).

My sugar baby account was a success (if you could call it that), with 13 men over the past month offering me all sorts of awesome perks like free holidays and “the pampering of your life”, though I’m not really sure I wanna know what that entails.

RELATED STORY: Inside the online world of Malaysian sugar babies

My sugar daddy account, however, was a total flop. You are only given 10 free messages, and I couldn’t advertise my phone number or email. I messaged 10 sugar babies, with no reply.

BTW..That’s how the site makes money – sugar daddies/mommies have to pay up to access the site’s full features.
Slightly disheartened, I moved on to local online classifieds websites.

It was depressing.

The sheer number of women advertising themselves the way one would a car or garden furniture was mind-boggling to say the least.

And, again, money was at the forefront of the sugar babies’ minds. Some advertisements came with a warning: “If you cannot afford RM5,000, don’t send me a message.”

Obviously, I still sent them messages via the classifieds’ internal messaging system. I had a story to write, okay?

Now, these sugar babies clearly know what they’re doing. They ask all kinds of questions – “How much do you make?”, “What do you do for a living?”, “Where do you live?” and so on – before agreeing to give out their personal phone numbers.

Clearly, they wanted to gauge how legit I was, and how rich I really was.

RELATED STORY: Our exclusive interview with SeekingArrangement.com founder Brandon Wade on how he got into the sugar daddy business

I suppose I failed their tests, as I didn’t manage to get a lot of numbers as a sugar daddy.

I had a bit more luck posing as a sugar mommy. I guess men are more forthcoming, as one answered many of my questions without asking about my pay slip, and he even gave me a pretty good price of RM400 a month.

That’s right folks, I could’ve had my own sugar baby at RM400 a month – and he looked pretty good in his photos!

After weeks of trawling the seedier end of Malaysian Internet, I emerged slightly battered by the bombardment of what is essentially sex for hire.

All the sugar babies and daddies I interviewed deny that this arrangement is prostitution, and I do understand where they’re coming from.
But coming from a background where sex is closely related to love, I don’t think I will be looking for a sugar daddy, ever. Not even with the lure of the pampering of my life.

About

Literature grad-turned-journalist who loves our R.AGE team karaoke nights a little too much. While her literature background has left her with a slightly twisted sense of humour, it has also given her a passion for writing on social issues.

Tell us what you think!

Inside the world of Malaysian sugar babies

Fancy a sugar baby? Thanks to the Internet, you can now have one in Malaysia for as low as RM400.

BTW…

Championing children’s education

Education director-general Datuk Dr Habibah Abdul Rahim speaks on the importance of empathy-based education, the challenges of adapting education policies in light of the Covid-19 situation, and her “dream” education system.

Read more Like this post22

I lost my mother to the Japanese war

 Whenever Allied planes bombed Sandakan town as part of its campaign to liberate Borneo, Daniel Chin Tung Foh’s grandfather would rush the whole family into a bomb shelter behind their house.  During its heyday, the British North Borneo Company had developed Sandakan into a major commercial and trading hub for timber, as well as […]

Read more Like this post17

A witness to the Double Tenth revolt

 Chua Hock Yong was born in Singapore, but his grandfather moved the family to British North Borneo (now Sabah) to establish their business in 1939 when he was a year old.  The Japanese invaded Borneo shortly after, but the family continued living in their shophouse in Gaya Street, Jesselton, now known as Kota Kinabalu.  […]

Read more Like this post21

An encounter with victims of the Sandakan Death Marches

 When the Second World War came to Borneo, Pelabiu Akai’s mother moved the family back to their village in Nalapak, Ranau.  Although the Japanese were known to be ruthless and brutal conquerors, they left the villagers to their own devices and Pelabiu had a largely uneventful life – until she came across gaunt-looking Allied […]

Read more Like this post19

Sarawak’s only living child prisoner of war

 Jeli Abdullah’s mother died from labour complications after giving birth to him and his twin brother. To his Bisaya tribe, this was seen as a bad omen, and his father did not know what to do with the twins.  Fortunately, an Australian missionary couple decided to adopt the newborns. But misfortunate fell upon the […]

Read more Like this post16

Lest we forget

AFIO Rudi, 21, had never thought much about his grandfather Jeli Abdullah’s life story until an Australian TV programme interviewed the 79-year-old about being Sarawak’s last surviving World War II child prisoner of war (POW). The engineering student then realised that despite living in Sarawak all his life, he also didn’t know very much of […]

Read more Like this post16

A native uprising against Japanese forces

 Basar Paru, 95, was only a teenager when his village in the central highlands of Borneo was invaded by the Japanese Imperial army.  “The Japanese told us not to help the British. They said Asians should help each other because we have the same skin, same hair,” Basar recalled. “But we, the Lun Bawang […]

Read more Like this post8

Left behind in wartime chaos

 Kadazan native Anthony Labangka was 10 years old when the Japanese Imperial Army invaded Borneo during World War II.  Sitting in the verandah of a modern kampung house on a hot afternoon in Kampung Penampang Proper, where he has lived his whole life, Anthony recalls the hardships of the Japanese Occupation.  The villagers were […]

Read more Like this post8
Kajai R.AGE Wan Ifra Journalism Documentaries Digital Media Awards

R.AGE Audience Survey 2019 + Office Tour contest

Want to be in the running to meet R.AGE producers and journalists? Take part in our R.AGE Audience Survey 2019 by Feb 17, 2019!

Read more Like this post6

BRATs Goes to Genting!

The final BRATs camp of the year promises to be the coolest – literally!

Read more Like this post4

The Hidden Cut

Female circumcision is a very common practice in Malaysia, but the procedure is still almost completely unregulated.

Read more Like this post4

#TeamSatpal: Turtle-y in Trouble

The 21st century brings unseen threats to local turtle conservation efforts.

Read more Like this post3
Go top