The controversial dating website Sugarbook reported that the number of young sugar babies from the Philippines increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to its website, “Sugarbook is an online dating site to meet Sugar Daddies & Sugar Babies. Build relationships, discuss allowances, and get paid instantly.”
The dating app, in a statement sent to ABS-CBN News, said there “has been a 63% surge in signups from March to August of this year— rising incidentally along with COVID-19 cases that prompted quarantine restrictions.”
Sugarbook said that more Filipinos, 79% percent of them sugar babies, signed up on the niche website that prides in its purpose: “Where romance meets finance.”
It added that there are already 28,310 sugar babies (ages 18 to 34) in the country, 46% of whom were students. Other leading signups are from women in the entertainment industry (15%) and the hospitality industry (10%).
According to the Sugarbook data on its Philippine membership, there are more sugar babies in the country than sugar daddies (7,526).
The top five Philippines Regions in Sugarbook are Metro Manila with 12,450 sugar babies and 4,507 sugar daddies; Calabarzon with 4,822 sugar babies and 1,422 sugar daddies; Central Visayas with 3,646 sugar babies and 1,086 sugar daddies; Central Luzon with 2,391 sugar babies and 270 sugar daddies; and Davao Region with 1,799 sugar babies and 103 sugar daddies.
More Filipinas work as sugar babies in Sugarbook
In its press release, Darren Chan, founder of Sugarbook, revealed how much sugar babies reportedly receive on average from their sugar daddies through the platform: P49,700 monthly.
“Driven by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, more users are signing up to Sugarbook due to unemployment and gender pay gaps. On average, a sugar baby in the Philippines receives up to ₱49,700 monthly,” Chan said in a statement.
Despite the emphasis on the money, the Sugarbook funder noted that sugar babies should not be thought of as sex workers.
“Unlike sexual workers, sugar babies are not forced into labor. Sugar babies have the freedom of choice and they do not sell their bodies. They are single mothers, divorcees, housewives or students who are driven, successful and goal-empowered to date financially secured people,” said Chan.
“…[W]ith a population of over 110 million in the Philippines, we see a huge opportunity here and that means channeling our marketing or media initiatives into the Philippines for the coming years,” he told ABS-CBN News in a separate email interview.