Sugarbook Credits Growing Singapore User Base to Rising Tuition Fees

6th March 2020 Amy Hetherington

Singapore’s students are increasingly choosing to become sugar babies as they struggle to pay soaring tuition fees, new research by an Asian dating app has found.

Statistics collected by Sugarbook, one of the region’s leading sugar dating platforms, has revealed that there was a 32% increase in Singaporean student profiles from 2018-2019. This brings the total number of students on the app to over 2,000.

Darren Chan, chief executive and founder of Sugarbook, said in a statement: “Driven by the ever-soaring costs of tuition fees, families that cannot afford to pay the outrageous costs of higher education are pushed towards taking out loans.

“Even worse, students are plagued with juggling multiple jobs while pursuing their studies and oftentimes end up dropping out as they are unable to cope with the pressure. On average, a sugar baby gets up to SGD 2,000 in monthly allowances which could prove a great help to a struggling university student.”

Chan also pointed out that sugar daddies and mummies not only provide financial assistance but also give financial guidance, networking opportunities and career advancements.

Most students came from Singapore’s Nanyang Technology University (NTU), followed by Singapore’s Institute of Management (SIM) and the National University of Singapore (NUS) with 643, 487 and 413 signups respectively.

However, this is still only a small fraction of the student population. The NTU and NUS have over 30,000 students each, while the SIM has almost 20,000.

This Valentine’s Day two million people exchanged messages on the app, which is a record high for the company.

Sugarbook’s presence in the country has continued to grow, but it hasn’t been without its setbacks. In 2018, it sponsored a five-day event alongside the Singapore Grand Prix, which was due to be promoted by the Singaporean Tourism Board.

However, the government organisation pulled out of the partnership once it found out the controversial dating app was involved.