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China's WeChat axes top-performing 'sugar daddy' dating site

Investigate me, daddy.

Zoey Chong Reporter
Zoey is CNET's Asia News Reporter based in Singapore. She prefers variety to monotony and owns an Android mobile device, a Windows PC and Apple's MacBook Pro all at the same time. Outside of the office, she can be found binging on Korean variety shows, if not chilling out with a book at a café recommended by a friend.
Zoey Chong
seeking-arrangement-china

SeekingArrangement.com has been taken off WeChat's platform.

Screengrab by Zoey Chong/CNET

Dating site SeekingArrangement.com is getting a lot of attention from the Chinese, but WeChat isn't feeling the love.

China's WhatsApp-equivalent has axed the dating site from its platform, state media China Daily reported Friday.

The move comes after Global Times -- also state-run -- said authorities in Shanghai launched a probe into SeekingArrangement's operations in the country. Global Times criticised the site, which promotes compensated dating, for pimping and prostitution on Monday.

WeChat's ban on the site doesn't come as a surprise. China is notorious for internet censorship and has warned other popular platforms (including China's Twitter-like service, Weibo) over content it deems to disrupt socialist values.

SeekingArrangement's loss of presence on WeChat, which boasts over a billion registered users, is expected to take a hit on the site's newfound popularity in China. It took just three days to become the top most downloaded free social networking app for iOS users in the country.

CNET has reached out to SeekingArrangement and WeChat for a comment.

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