With heavy workloads and not much personal time to spare, many young Malaysians find it increasingly hard to engage in romantic relationships. Yet, this clearly has not stopped some Malaysians from engaging in relationships with certain benefits. A statistic recently released by Seasia Stats last month shows that not only is Malaysia on the list of Asian countries with the most sugar daddies, it actually comes in third place, sharing the spot with Japan.
Sugar daddy who?
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What is a sugar daddy? According to Forbes, a sugar daddy is “an older, well-off person who helps out a younger individual with money, gifts or experiences in return for companionship or whatever kind of arrangement they both agree on.” Most of these arrangements are between older men and young ladies, called sugar babies. There are also occasional cases of older women, or sugar mummies, being involved with younger men, also called sugar babies.
Durian candy vs cherry blossom
Image Credit: Seasia Stats
Seasia Stats claimed to have sourced its information from Seeking.com (aka SeekingArrangement), an American online dating service. According to the stats, Malaysia has 32,500 sugar daddies, a similar number to those found in Japan. A caption reads, “It’s a sugar showdown! Will it be durian candy or cherry blossoms?”
The big boys
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Who is at the top of the list in the meantime? Unsurprisingly, the most populous country in Asia and the world, India, sits comfortably at the top with 338,000 sugar daddies. Following quite far behind is the country with the biggest population in Southeast Asia, Indonesia, with 60,250 sugar daddies. Behind Malaysia and Japan is Hong Kong with 28,600 sugar daddies. At the bottom of the list is Cambodia, with 3,500 sugar daddies.
True or not?
Most social media users reacted to this statistic with a mix of humour and scepticism. Many asked why Thailand and the Philippines are not on the list. Others asked about the methodology behind the statistics and how Seasia and Seeking.com had obtained the necessary data. One Malaysian commenter, Muhyiddin Hashim, made a joke about Malaysia’s diabetes epidemic. “For Malaysia, I think u swapped with daddys with high sugar (diabetic) statistics.”
Malaysia sugar addicted?
Though Seasia has not released any information about how the numbers were gathered, it has previously been reported by local news outlets that the sugar daddy culture is surprisingly prevalent in Malaysia. In 2021, the Malay Mail reported Sugarbook had over 400,000 active Malaysian users, with 220,000 sugar babies, 180,000 sugar daddies and 6,000 sugar mummies. In 2022, Focus Malaysia reported that Malaysians formed one of the dating site Sugarbook’s largest membership bases.
What do we think?
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Whether this sort of relationship is ethical is a highly subjective matter. On one hand, there is nothing technically illegal about a relationship agreed upon by two consenting adults. On the other, there may still be an element of coercion involved, especially with how some sugar babies are financially dependent on their benefactors. The current economic situation might also contribute to this, as more young Malaysians have to find other means to live comfortably. And when financial incentives are being offered in exchange for companionship, it can be hard to turn down such an arrangement.
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