This website can buy you love

The Beatles were wrong about money not being able to buy you love. A controversial new US dating website allows the 'generous' to pay for a date, and the 'attractive' to either accept or decline the offer

Brandon wey, 40, founder of WhatsYourPrice.com, is a Singaporean-born, MIT-educated entrepreneur and 'nerd' who spent the last half-decade building lucrative businesses playing online cupid. Considered a dating mogul, he has created profitable dating sites like SeekingArrangement.com and SeekingMillionaire.com.
His latest website divides people into 'generous' and 'attractive', with the former bidding for a date with the latter. The website charges approximately 5 to 10 per cent of the agreed upon price of the date once it has been fixed. It claims to have approximately 2,000 Indian users who have paid an average of $165 per date. By next year, Wey plans on introducing the website in other foreign languages including Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and Hindi. Excerpts from an interview:

What is WhatsYourPrice.com about?
At the end of the day, my goal with WhatsYourPrice.com is to empower men and women. Men like me will be empowered to date women whom they believe were out of their reach or league. Women who believe they deserve better will be empowered to find men who are more able to show they can be generous and able to provide and care for her.

How did you hit upon the idea?
The idea came from my own personal dating experience. Being an Asian living in America, dating is tough, fighting the stereotypes about Asian men and having to compete against white American men. I was frustrated with the lack of results after joining a dating agency, and numerous dating websites. So I figured that if I wasn't able to ask a girl to give me 2 hours of their time to impress them, perhaps many other men are having the same problems.

You say paying for dates as an idea already exists.
In Korea, the culture of paying for companionship in the dating sense is well an alive. At regular nightclubs, when a man sees a girl he wants to meet, all he has to do is give a big tip to the waiter, and he will almost always deliver the girl. Likewise, there are many "booking clubs" where single women hang out.u00a0 These women are paid for their time to drink with male customers.u00a0 Many of these women end up dating or marrying the male customers in the end.u00a0

But whatever happened to love? Many even compare your venture to prostitution?
I think it is silly for people to compare WhatsYourPrice.com to prostitution when there is no sex involved on the first date. As for 'love', WhatsYourPrice.com is the only dating website that can give you a chance at love with someone you thought is out of your reach or even out of your league.u00a0
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How have people from different nationalities reacted to your website?
Europeans and Asians are more accepting of the concept than Americans. Most of the reactions we have gotten from Americans are "isn't this like prostitution"?u00a0 Some say if you're accepting money to go out on a date, you have to be a golddigger or a hooker. Others say if you're paying money, then you must be a loser. European and Asian cultures are more pragmatic.u00a0

How many Indian users does the site have?
Out of the over 1,00,000 users who have signed up worldwide, approximately 2,000 come from India. While the average date is $138, Indian men worldwide have paid an average of $165, which makes them more generous than men of other ethnicities. We are marketing our service only to English-speaking countries at this time, but by next year, we plan on introducing the website in other foreign languages including Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and Hindi.u00a0

Aren't you worried that professional escorts might join the website?
Yes, I am worried, but this is also the reason I have a team of staff members whose sole job is to approve profiles and screen photographs.