Expensive Love

Recently, i have been watching the pretty popular matchmaking show in China 非诚勿扰 and i feel the dating scene has been very much commercialized nowadays. In the show, 24 beautiful ladies stood on the stage to either accept a man or "kick him out". Most of them are dressed up beautifully and a handful of them are high fliers in their line of work. I am not too sure if the participants have to pay a huge amount to join the programme but i read in an interview with one of the participants that the TV producers actually pay for their food and transport. The success of this matchmaking programme has attracted many advertisers and sponsors so i am sure they can easily afford it. And in order to join the programme, numerous interviews were conducted and usually the male participants have got to be high fliers too, either having a good career or a businessman and he would have a higher chance to be successful. I heard from my brother there was one participant who was just a bus driver and immediately, you see the ladies switching off their lights. Super realistic!

I wonder if this show would be successful if it is held in Singapore, I thought Singapore has quite alot of single men and women too, in fact more single women. Here, there are also alot of dating agencies. I used to join quite a number of singles dating events and even went for personalised dating and matching services. And sad to say, i was not very impressed with them. 

For Singles dating events, I used to attend activities like halloween in the zoo, Revel etc....
Halloween in the zoo is a very good concepts and it caters to a large number of singles at a very good price. But to know someone there, it is not going to be easy. It would be kinda "touch and go' and you would not be able to know someone to spark an interest within a short period of time. My friend was paired with a guy who would not let her sit inside while on the tram, and you know what, all those "ghosts" aimed her to scare her, how "gentleman"!
Revel is super expensive. The event costs 25 dollars and it was held at a pretty atas club in MBS. The only thing participants are provided is a mask. Ok nevermind, beforehand, we were informed, drinks on our own, and guess what, one small glass of red wine costs 30 dollars plus. Usual price for most clubs is at most 20. Participants were asked to do an activity and guess what, pens were not even provided. One of the organisers came talking to us, we said no one come to talk to us, she asked us to socialise...i thought shouldn't the organiser do something with facilitation and orientation instead.

And for personalised matching, i went for one who told me if i sign a package for 10 dates, it is 1000 dollars, that is to say on average, per date is 100. Of course, if i sign up for more dates, per date is like 80 dollars. Look, i need to pay thousands of dollars just to find someone to get attached? And what if i manage to be successful on the first few dates, the rest of the money would not even be refunded.

Everything is so expensive, even the activities are expensive too. How can the singles get attached and find someone? Unless they are willing to spend, or else the number of singles would keep increasing.