Chinese website runs competition to find brides for millionaires

Chinese website runs competition to find brides for millionaires

Updated at: 1409 PST, Monday, June 28, 2010 BEIJING: Money can't buy you love, but in modern China it can bring you the pick of 50,000 of China's prettiest girls after one of the country's largest online dating agencies held a competition to find the perfect match for 18 of its dollar-millionaire members. The competition, run by a local web site has attracted huge attention in China where online dating is becoming one of the Internet's fastest-growing and most competitive industries, expected to be worth £120m this year. Hopefuls from as far a field as Vancouver, Singapore, New York and Paris flew in to China last weekend to join local girls in the first round of auditions which saw an initial selection of 2,600 successful applicants being assessed on the basis of their weight, figures, education and age. The identity of the millionaires has been kept secret, but their average age is 38 and, according to site, all have self-made fortunes from a range of industries including textiles, finance and China's booming property market. The men had all proved their financial bona fides by producing ownership documents for luxury villas, limousines, sports cars and private planes. A financier from Shenzhen promised to a Porsche to whichever woman proved herself a worthy match. The brazen nature of such dating competitions, including similar events on Chinese provincial television, has raised concerns in China about society's obsession with money.