Mention social escorts and many might assume they are highly paid prostitutes masquerading as hired companions.

But for Richard, the 27-year-old serial entrepreneur who runs SG VIP Escorts, the women working for him provide a premium “girlfriend experience” sans the sleaze.

Speaking to Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore, Richard said he makes it clear to his clients that they should not expect paid sex when engaging his company’s services. He also tells his escorts to “politely decline” any such requests from their clients.

Richard started his fledgling companionship business in June and now manages 13 female escorts, whose qualities and services are published on the company’s website. He is SG VIP Escorts’ sole employee.

Going into the interview this reporter was expecting to meet a man full of bluster, complete with the typical trappings – flashy clothes and an unsavoury demeanour – one might expect of a pimp. In person, however, Richard was soft-spoken and unassuming – to the extent that he made social escort business seem positively sterile.

Dressed in a dark blue polo tee with black trousers and carrying a slingbag, he exuded the aura of an insurance agent, which he worked as while attending university.

The interview was held at Wang Cafe in Changi Airport Terminal 3; cafes being Richard’s preferred haunt for meeting potential recruits and doing backend for his website. Richard offered his surname, but added that he would prefer it to remain off-record for fear that his friends would avoid using his agency if they knew he was behind it.

‘I saw an opportunity’

When asked why he chose to dabble in the social escort industry, Richard replied that it was either this or accounting, but accounting had too many regulations and more competition.

Enterprise has always been his forte, he said. He first tried his hand at a T-shirt business which he admitted was “not very feasible”. Other ventures related to marketing and photography came and went before he began a courier business some two years ago with a friend.

He is still involved in the delivery business, but is focusing on expanding SG VIP Escorts, the idea for which came to him in April last year. “It was more like I saw the opportunity and I decided to just try,” he said.

Despite the stigma attached to social escort work, Richard remains unfazed and said that cold-canvassing for clients as an insurance agent had given him “thick skin”.

“Because of that experience… I don’t really care what people say, I do good people will say, I do bad people will say. To me I don’t really care about the stigma,” he said.

What really surprised him was his family’s indifference to the idea, which is perhaps due to their understanding of his entrepreneurial nature. Another factor Richard took into consideration before kickstarting his escort business was his girlfriend of over two years, although she simply jested, “You spend the money on me can already lor”.

The run-up to the website’s launch in June was a simple affair. All he needed to start SG VIP Escorts was a laptop, Wi-Fi, entrepreneurship skills and an Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (Acra) record. Registering the business is better for the long-term, he said.

In the months since starting the agency, Richard has pulled in an average of five to 15 bookings per week, and has received more than 100 applications from potential escorts. He declined to share his earnings, citing competitive reasons.

‘No sex please ’



Unlike some social escort agencies, SG VIP Escorts provides “companionship services” with no sex involved.

The “no sex policy” is an important clause stated on its website as Richard could get into trouble with the authorities if he is proven to be living off the earnings of those who provide sexual services.

Richard stressed, however, that he has no control over what his clients and escorts choose to engage in once they are on a date.

The only time Richard has had to deal with anything seedy was when he received an e-mail from an alleged pornstar from Europe. “I opened my e-mail and saw a nude picture. She told me she was a European pornstar and was coming to Singapore,” he said, adding that he did not reply to the e-mail.

For legal reasons, SG VIP Escorts hires only Singaporeans and permanent residents. The criterion also acts as a form of quality control for Richard and helps assure his clients that they will not be set up with foreign KTV hostesses. Besides, his clients prefer local girls.

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