Seeking.com (formerly known as SeekingArrangement) is an American online dating service founded by

Brandon Wade Brandon Wade (born Lead Wey; 1970) is an American businessman who is the founder and chief executive officer of InfoStream Group, an online dating company. He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and MIT Sloan School o ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, in 2006. Wade was previously the CEO of the company until June 2022 when he was succeeded by Ruben Buell, who will serve as CEO of Reflex Media, the company that maintains Seeking.com.

History

Seeking.com was founded as SeekingArrangement.com in 2006 by

, who was born in Singapore and later moved to the U.S. to attend the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

. By 2009, the website reported more than 300,000 registered members and had an active blog in which users debated different subjects related to

sugar dating Sugar dating, also called sugaring, is a relationship of an older wealthy person and a younger person who is in need of financial assistance. This sometimes achieves mutual benefits, but is often abused to take advantage of and coerce poor peop ...

. In 2010, the website began offering free Premium Memberships to students who register using their university email addresses. By January 2013, the website reported 2 million users, of which 44 percent were college students after seeing a significant increase in college students registering for the site compared to the previous year. When the

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took place in

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, the website saw a 25.9% increase of site users stemming from this geographic area. This increase translates to the average of 1,823 daily users increasing to 2,295 accessing the site at this reported time. According to ''

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

,'' of the 200,000 Sugar Daddy users, 42.1% reportedly identify as Republicans and 34.9% as Democrats. In October 2013, the website had a surge in registrations during the U.S. federal government shutdown. In 2014, over 1.4 million students were registered on the website. Requests from Sugar Babies varied from assistance with college expenses to monthly allowances for living expenses. In 2015, SeekingArrangement released a list of the top 20 colleges attended by women using the website as sugar babies. The number one university on the list was the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

. Other information on sugar babies was also provided such as the average allowance and a breakdown of what women spent it on. By 2016, the website reported having five million members and that it generated nearly $40 million in revenue each year. The same year,

Doug Richard Doug Richard (born 6 May 1958) is an American entrepreneur best known for his television appearances in the United Kingdom. He appeared as a "Dragon" on the first two series of ''Dragons' Den'' and was also a government adviser. Education Rich ...

admitted to sexual activity with a 13-year-old girl met through SeekingArrangement, believing her to be 17 at the time. The court heard that the 13-year-old girl in question told Richards on a number of occasions that she was 17. On January 29, 2016, Richard was cleared of all charges brought against him by a unanimous jury decision. In 2021, ''

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'' reported that Joel Greenberg, the former Seminole County tax collector indicted on federal

sex trafficking Sex trafficking is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. It has been called a form of modern slavery because of the way victims are forced into sexual acts non-consensually, in a form of sexual slavery. Perpetrators of the ...

charges, used the site to meet women. Rep. Matt Gaetz also allegedly used the site. By February 2022, the website had completed a rebrand to Seeking.com as part of a strategy advertising shift. In June 2022, the websites founder Wade stepped down as CEO and was succeeded by Ruben Buell, who will serve as CEO of Reflex Media, the company that maintains Seeking.com and several other similar websites.

Operations

The company's business model is based on a membership system. Members are able to register for site services free of charge, which provides them with a limited number of messages. Members have the option to either purchase credits for expanded messaging privileges on a monthly basis or on an annual basis with Premium and Diamond Memberships. The website is used in more 130 countries and includes versions of the interface in eight languages. The company headquarters is presently located in

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. There are additional offices located in

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

and

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

References

External links

*{{official website, http://www.seeking.com Online dating services of the United States Internet properties established in 2006 2006 establishments in the United States Adult dating websites