Makati ‘3rd most promiscuous’? Doubt it, baby, says City Hall

People tend to exaggerate those things.

The Makati City government on Saturday turned its nose up at reports that a dating website had branded the city the “third most promiscuous” in Asia based on the results of a global survey.

In a statement, City Hall spokesperson Joey Salgado said “it’s difficult to treat seriously the results of a survey conducted online by a service which admits to being a sugar-daddy dating network.”

Salgado was referring to SeekingArrangement.com, which was launched in 2006 and claims to have over 1.7 million members worldwide. The website offers itself as a venue for matching up “Sugar Daddies” with “Sugar Babies” in a “mutually beneficial relationship.”

An Inquirer report earlier said the website recently released the results of a survey involving 10,000 male members, which supposedly found that 76 percent of the respondents throughout Asia could be considered promiscuous with five or more sexual partners a year.

Bangkok ranked first with 83 percent of men admitting multiple sexual partners in a year; Osaka came second with 80 percent; while Makati ranked third with 77 percent.

Also ranking high in the study’s “promiscuous list” were Hyderabad, India; Ho Chi Minh (Saigon), Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, and Beijing.

Salgado questioned the validity of the survey, saying “there is no way to verify if the answers given by the respondents are true, considering that the agenda of those who use this online dating service is to attract partners. There is an incentive to exaggerate or even give false answers.”

In all likelihood, Salgado said, the survey respondents would only claim to live in Makati, host of the country’s premier financial district. “Definitely, a Makati address would bolster [one’s] attractiveness factor, since the city is known for upscale living.”

SeekingArrangement.com founder Brandon Wade was quoted in the report as saying that the study corrected a “misconception” about Asian men.

“Asia is known for efficiency and discipline. There is a common misconception in the West that Asian men are not as promiscuous as Americans. It is simply not true. Because of the fast paced lifestyle in these cities, men are always looking to relieve stress. In a city where the market is constantly changing, so goes the dating pool,” Wade said.