Beautiful Ukrainian women for Chinese men: dating agency Ulove is certainly popular, but is it successful?
Ulove, which matches ‘high-quality’ Chinese men to young, good-looking women in Ukraine, has more than 800,000 followers on Weibo. Clients hope to emulate the love success of its ‘winner in life’ founder Max Mei – but do they?
The colourful founder of a matchmaking business that introduces “high-quality” Chinese men to young, good-looking Ukrainian women has upgraded his website and social media channels, which now tout his “success stories” in helping couples find cross-cultural love.
Max Mei has launched a new commercial WeChat account and rebranded his website Ulove – which stands for “Ukrainian Love” – while the number of people following his Weibo account has grown to more than 800,000. It was not long before Mei’s website caught the attention of Chinese media, making him an instant internet celebrity. Reports by CCTV and People’s Daily online profiled Mei as an example of xue zha – “academic dregs” – who had found success and a beautiful local wife in a foreign land.
Many male Chinese internet users were impressed with his story, dubbing him a “winner in life”. Some were sceptical about how successful he really was, suggesting that his “international import-export business” might in reality be a humble Chinese restaurant. Others commented that Mei’s home in Ukraine, seen in many of his videos, was a rather ordinary flat, noticeably lacking in luxuries.
Mei, 35, founded his dating agency in Ukraine in 2016. Originally called Culove – “Chinese-Ukrainian Love” – he got the idea after sharing photos on social media of himself with his young Ukrainian wife and their first mixed-race child. Many followers commented that they aspired to emulate his success in life.
He sensed a “market opportunity”, he later said. He realised he could leverage his fluent Russian, his “expertise on cross-cultural relationships” and the “overproduction of beautiful women in Ukraine” to launch a matchmaking business.
Mei filled his website and social media channels with photos of his family, especially his blonde, model-like wife Dasha Mei. She is often seen wearing skimpy outfits – bikinis, making dumplings in her underwear – or just draped on her husband’s arm. There are also the children – he now has two – and he boasts about his thriving trading company and the US$400,000 property he claims to be building.