AT FIRST GLANCE, the Web site SugarDaddyMate.comseems like any other dating site. Most of the men are looking for beautiful, sexy women, and most of the women want nice guys who can make them smile and laugh. But if Match.com is a chatty social site, SugarDaddyMate.comis a down-and-dirty marketplace where older men with money and cute young women engage in frank transactions. They’re not searching for longtime soul mates; they want no-strings-attached “arrangements” that trade in the most valued currencies: wealth, youth and beauty, they are “sugar daddies” and “sugar babies.”
There’s the 18-year-old from Paris, France asking for $2,000 to $4,000 a month from “a mentor who can provide me with the finer things in life and keep me happy!” And the 52-year-old investor from upstate New York willing to pay $6,000 a month for a “daytime playmate” for “intense connection without commitment.” Critics say the site is at best a convenience store for adulterers and at worst a virtual brothel, but, SugarDaddyMate’s 34-year-old founder and chief executive, is not bothered by the criticism. “We stress relationships that are mutually beneficial,” he says. “We ask people to really think about what they want in a relationship and what they have to offer. That kind of upfront honesty is a good basis for any relationship.”
The site now claims more than 300,000 registered members, far fewer than dating sites like Match.com, which has 1.5 million paying subscribers, but still a remarkable number. Sugar babies outnumber daddies 10 to 1. SugarDaddyMate.comis what one sugar daddy called “the best darn fishing hole I ever fished in.”
This abundance of possibilities is part of what the site is selling, along with fantasy. Some of these men — especially those shopping for women half their age — are digging deep into their pockets to pay for an illusion: that despite their receding hairlines, they’re still able to charm cute and sexy young women. And thanks to a site like SugarDaddyMate.com, it sure has been working for them.

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