Malaysian Model (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Here is the quick list of my top five dating sites in Malaysia. I’ll go into more detail in my reviews later in this article.
Malaysia is a predominately Muslim country. In fact, over 60% of the population practices Islam. Because of this, don’t go to Malaysia expecting it to be the wide open dating scene you’ll find in other southeast Asian countries like Thailand or even the Philippines. With that said, Malaysia has a relatively small but functioning dating scene.
Having traveled to this part of the world, I can tell you that Malaysian women are beautiful. If you work hard enough, you can find some real stunners. When you sign up for one of these dating sites/apps that I mention below, you’ll get a glimpse of what I’m talking about (i.e. Malaysian women look even better in person). For the best results, try to get your online dating game going in a city with a decent-sized population like Kuala Lumpur.
Just a heads up…a lot of these sites and apps are full of fake profiles. What I did to get around this was to read member profiles really carefully. Usually fake profiles are pretty easy to spot. A woman who has only one profile photo, is wearing something overly suggesting (e.g. tight miniskirt), and/or advertising “services” are all clear signals to steer clear.
Another clue of a pretender is a woman who has a poorly written profile. Some of the profiles I came across appeared to be written by an automated bot.
Malaysian Model – Amber Chia (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Ok, without further ado, let’s dive into my experiences with each of the most popular dating sites and apps in Malaysia.
MalaysianCupid is the premier online dating service in Malaysia. The website is operated by Cupid Media, which is an established online dating company that owns other websites in countries around the world. The website hosts hundreds of users at any given time, making it easy to meet new people with similar interests and goals.
MalaysianCupid is expertly designed with polished finishes and fun features. I have made particular use of the translator app, which allows you to communicate freely across any language barrier. The website is available in both English and Malay, but most of the users post in Malay. Additionally, the matching capabilities are impressive, and I have been pleased by the growing number of matches provided by the website every time I log in.
Malaysian Cupid
If you are a western male or female, you will need to rely heavily on MalaysianCupid as well as the site I will discuss below. As mentioned in the intro, because Malaysia is a predominately Muslim country, you can’t exactly go to a bar to meet people to date. These sites are geared towards Malaysians looking to date people from the western world.
The sheer number of potential matches that makes MalaysianCupid my favorite choice for an online dating service.
Sign up Process
MalaysianCupid is easy to join. Users simply need to submit their name and gender before providing an email address and password. Once users have an account, they can create a small profile. This includes a personal description and an overview of your ideal partner.
Once you have a profile, you are free to start looking for your perfect match. Users can fill out a more extensive profile to expedite the search process, or you can start browsing your potential matches right away. The website will prompt you to complete the profile from time to time in order to provide the best matches possible.
How to Locate Potential Matches
MalaysianCupid provides a list of potential matches based on your profile. Because there are usually many matches provided, you can sort them by categories such as Newest Members, Last Active or Relevant. Matches can be viewed by picture alone, but they can also be viewed with basic information or complete profiles. You can further refine your search with other indicators such as age, body type or location.
How to Communicate with Other Members
If you have a free account, your messaging options are limited. Basic users can use the “sending interest” feature. If the match responds, they can send a message in reply, but these messages are not accessible unless you become a paying member. There are various membership tiers, and both Gold and Platinum members have access to better communication features like instant messaging, video chat, and more.
All users are able to browse profiles and add users to their favorites list.
Unique Site Features
MalaysianCupid has exceptional anti-spam features. When I joined the website, I provided as little information as possible. This caused my account to be suspended while the company conducted a background check. I was able to sort this out by contacting the company, but the experience proves that MalaysianCupid is committed to keeping its users safe in the online dating world.
What is Included for Each Membership Level
- Standard: Search for matches based on your preferences, send interest to any member, read messages from paying members
- Gold: Communicate with all members, audio/video chat, Instant Messaging, ad-free browsing, anonymous browsing
- Platinum: Higher ranking in searches, more profile space, extensive search features, message translating, VIP profile highlighting
Asian Dating
AsianDating.com is the second best dating site in Malaysia and is the one where you should spend 95% of your time.
The site is part of the Cupid Media network (like MalaysianCupid.com above) and has over 1 million registered members to browse through to find your perfect match.
Although with that many members it is possible to have a few bad apples in the bunch, there is a plethora of single men and women in search of the “one.”
There are two options when it comes to membership for this site. You can get a free account or a premium account. However, if you chose to remain a free member, there isn’t much you can do to find your date as communication options are limited.
Sign up Process
This site makes signing up incredibly easy. In fact, you can get your profile up and running in about 2 minutes and not have to pay a dime.
Like all dating sites, you will need a name, email account and password in order to register. There is also the option of signing in with your Facebook account.
After that, add a bit of information about yourself, who you are looking for, and what traits your partner should have. You don’t want to end up with a biker woman if you like to bird watch. Your profile may not be 100% complete at this point, but you can begin searching for matches.
Every so often, like Facebook, you will be reminded to add more information, but you don’t need to do that right off the bat.
How to Locate Potential Matches
There are two distinct ways for you to find someone with this site. You can take the traditional route and browse through the many different profiles, or you can narrow down the competition by searching for unique qualities you want your partner to have.
By narrowing down your searches to gender, age, religion or zodiac sign, you can save yourself some time. However, by doing it this way, you might miss your chance to meet the perfect “one.”
Like all dating sites, it is best to take your time and read through the person’s profile to make sure you are compatible with one another before sending a wink. And don’t forget to save your favorites.
How to Communicate with Other Members
In order to communicate, you have the option of upgrading your membership to either Gold or Platinum. If you are serious about truly finding someone, the cost is worth it. You can’t chat with anyone until you upgrade your account.
After you upgrade, you have full access to chatting, messaging and eventually Skype. The goal of any dating site is to meet and interact with people. Having a free membership doesn’t do much good since you can’t break the ice and talk with other members who eventually could lead to a date out on the town.
Unique Site Features
While it is important to understand what your partner is saying, this site understands and has a unique feature that translates your text with the click of a button. Although it may not help during one-on-one chat sessions, this feature helps to break down the language barriers and gets the ball rolling for potential matches.
What is Included in Each Membership Level
Because Asian Dating is run by Cupid Media, the membership structure is the exact same as MalaysianCupid.
Bumble
As another option, I recommend you sign up for Bumble. I did a full review of Bumble here.
Coffee Meets Bagel
Coffee Meets Bagel strives to give you a whole different dating experience that makes meeting people more convenient, enjoyable, and stress-free.
Established in 2012 by three sisters who wanted to give singles the opportunity to meet other singles inside their social circle, Coffee Meets Bagel (CMB) is an app that aims to pair singles up based on common friends and interests. There are no searches; instead, CMB finds your mutual friends from Facebook who are also on the app and dictates who are the best connections for you. CMB has had its most success in big cities where the crop of singles is much larger. In smaller cities, matches may be few and far between.
Sign up Process
CMB is strictly an app and can be downloaded through your app store or on Google. You will need a Facebook account in order to sign up so CMB can access your mutual friends network, which is how matches are displayed.
Signing up doesn’t take long at all. All you need to do is fill out a basic profile of yourself and then write about you and your ideal date by answering three simple phrases: “I am…”, “I like…”, and “I appreciate when my date…”. The more detailed you are, the better chance for you to showcase yourself to other matches. You can also see how you stack up with other profiles on the site. You can add up to nine photos, and the verification process through Facebook is fairly short. Within an hour, you can begin sending out bagels, which are likes.
How to Locate Potential Matches
Matches are provided for men each day by using their mutual friends on Facebook. Each morning men are given a series of singles by CMB to make a decision on. They can view those singles and choose “LIKE, PASS, or COMMENT.”
When noon rolls around, notifications are sent to the women that the men liked. They can view your profile and respond with a like back if they are interested. Women will receive up to six matches of men who have liked them per day, while men can receive up to 21 females to make a decision on. Notifications are sent to men and women every time a person likes them. The more friends you have on Facebook, the easier it will be for CMB to find other singles on the site that best match up with you.
The upside is the creativity and the lack of overloading you with men or women. The disadvantage is you only likely only get one chance at these matches. If you don’t make a decision on them by noon, they go away. If women don’t get six likes/matches, CMB will find matches for women to decide on, and they get a #LadiesChoice option of which men they find most appealing and want to send bagels to. Profiles cannot be searched for; they’re only visible through matches.
By setting you up with mutual friends, CMB hopes to eliminate the awkwardness of meeting new people. It’s much easier to communicate and break the ice with someone who you share compatible friends with rather than someone out of the clear blue sky.
If you want to see more matches than just the ones the site provides for you each day, you can use the “Discover” tab, and it will show you more profiles of users who are mutual matches that you can view and decide on whether to like or pass.
How to Communicate with Other Members
One advantage of CMB is that once you and a match both like each other, you can message back and forth for free. However, you must respond to a like within 24 hours, or that match will disappear. It is not recycled or filtered anywhere.
This means if you are a user who doesn’t use the site daily, you may miss out on matches forever. CMB has a unique profile tidbit area which gives users the chance to discuss three interesting things about them. This is private, but is shown to someone you match with so the two of you have an icebreaker to open up your conversation with. You can also meet users in a chatroom that CMB has. Chatting is available for seven days and disappears after.
Unique Site Features
CMB has a lot of different and unique features that most other apps don’t have. For example, there’s the Give feature which allows you to be a matchmaker for your friends and recommend a match for another friend you know is on the site. If they check the match you recommended, you get free beans (talked about more below).
There’s also the Take feature which is a way for you to show up on other profiles’ discover section. CMB also gives you a chance to rematch with someone if they did not respond within 24 hours.
Another fun feature is the Question of the Day. When a question is posted on the site, you can record yourself in an eight second video answering the question and have the chance to be displayed in the app’s video section.
CMB has some special features that all users can take advantage of with beans. Beans are like coins which unlock many of the features below. You can earn free beans by eclipsing certain milestones or by purchasing them. Here are few of the features you can take advantage of with those beans:
- Photo Lab: Not sure which photo is your best photo? CMB will do the work for you and pick which photo will generate the most interest and likes.
- Woo: This is like Tinder’s version of the super like. If you like someone more than just a little bit, you can send them a Woo. This will make you stand out and show up sooner to your match.
- Open Sesame: Want to see who those mutual friends are? By unlocking Open Sesame, you can see which friends you and your match share common friends with on Facebook.
- Mirror Mirror: This feature shows you how you stack up. It illustrates your rating on the site and where you compare to other matches that show up to singles.
- Express Delivery: If you want to bypass the waiting time to send a message, you can send it to them instantly through Express Delivery. Your match will immediately receive an email notification.
What is Included in Each Membership Level
A lot of the features on CMB are free, including the ability to message others that you match with. However, certain features are only available through a paid premium membership:
- You can get read receipts on your messages
- Get up to 6,000 monthly beans
- Unlimited Woos
- Get to see mutual friends for all your matches
- Five free takes
- Free access to activity report on your matches
CMB gets high marks for creativity. In an effort to match singles up with mutual friends from Facebook, CMB is trying to eliminate the awkward factor and open up lines for communication. It’s a bold approach that has its drawbacks, such as the lack of matches that may show up for someone who doesn’t really use Facebook or have a lot of Facebook friends.
It also presents issues if many of your mutual friends don’t live near you. So it’s a hit or miss depending on the person, but I really like the idea of the app. It’s different and not like every other app, and many people are looking for apps like that.
Something different, and matching people up with those who you can relate to in some way instead of searching and swiping all day has many more advantages than disadvantages. I would highly recommend trying this app out and seeing where it leads to. Many of the features are free, and CMB does a lot of the work for you. It’s too convenient to pass up on.
Tinder
I would only sign up for Tinder as an absolute final option. Tinder was fine in its early years, but today it is full of timewasters. Sign up for this app if you have a lot of time on your hands.
How to Get Started
Sign up for one of the dating sites/apps above and then start sending out lots and lots of messages. Don’t get discouraged if you have no results for the first month or two. Dating takes time, and you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you get to taste any kind of success.
Oh yeah, I highly recommend you also book a flight to Kuala Lumpur. Your odds of success will be much higher if you are inside the country and can easily go out on actual dates offline with the matches you make.
Semoga berjaya! (Good luck in Malay).
Further Reading
Worldwide Online Dating Site Reviews: Be sure to check out my country-by-country reviews of the best online dating sites in the world.
Worldwide Moving Guide: Everything you need to know in order to plan your move to 65+ countries around the world.
Worldwide Jobs Guide: If you are interested in working in this country, be sure to check out my posts on how to find jobs in this country and other countries around the world.
Worldwide Apartments Guide: If you are interested in renting an apartment in another country, take a look at my articles on how to find an apartment in various countries around the world.
About Addison Sears-Collins
Hey! I'm Addison Sears-Collins, the founder of Visa Hunter. You can learn more about me here. Connect with me by liking my fan page on Facebook, connecting with me on Twitter, or check out my website Automatic Addison where I build robots and embedded systems.
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