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Personally, I think UC pricing is excessive and beyond most guys. There is lots of room for alternatives. You are talking about an arranged date, that may cost the guy 70,000 yen or MORE when it's said and done (membership, annual, setting). And going to a date/deai club can cost just 27,000 yen for everything in comparison. A date website, even if the guy pays for everything (dinner and hotel) can be 20,000 yen or LESS, for everything. Of course date cafes and date websites can have a lot of strikeouts, not just homeruns, though lots of free swings. Watched a Japanese guy using Tinder on the train last night, so guys know what's up now.
Not every guy is rich or clueless. Offer a good value and deal, they are sure to come. If not, social media and word of mouth can hurt. Guys are going to compare options.
This thread is spun off of one called “Online Date Club!” from which the quoted-in-full post above was taken. I am starting a new thread because this post is basically a reply to @Solong 's critique of UC (Universe Club) and doesn’t have much to do with Jennifer’s plans to start a new club (the topic of that other thread).
So, a few points:
1 - I agree that UC is in the upscale part of the Tokyo market (though not at the top) and that it is not a good choice for mongers whose budgets are well matched to typical DH or deai club or BP prices. However, the existence of less expensive options is not a valid critique of the existence of pricier ones. It would be like complaining about expensive high-end restaurants because there are places that offer lower yen-to-calorie ratios or saying that it is clueless to purchase an expensive car because there are much cheaper ones available which perform the same basic functions with the same basic technology etc. That is simply not how markets for other goods and services work; the cheapest option to achieve the basic goal does not “rule” and is not necessarily the best choice for everyone, or even for most people. Why should p4p be any different?
2 - It is not as simple as suggested in the quoted post to calculate the cost of going the UC route. The cost PER DATE of the annual membership fee depends on how many settings you take in a year; the larger the number you take, the less significant it is (obviously). Similarly, the cost PER DATE of the setting fee depends on how many times you end up seeing the woman you meet; it can also be quite a minor part of the total cost if you see her many times on some long term basis. However, the cost PER DATE for most other p4p options are fixed and do not average down to some lower level if you do more of them. This is not to claim that UC is not an expensive way to go; in most cases it is. But the comparison is not so simple or so extreme as the above analysis suggests unless you take only one setting per year and then never see the woman again. If you were to do that then yes, UC is probably not a good choice.
3 - The above price comparison also ignores the fact that a UC date/setting typically includes a whole evening or afternoon together…at least a few hours and often several, during which you can expect to enjoy some charming and fun female company. Admittedly (though a mystery to me), a lot of guys don’t value such experiences much or at all and only want sexual contact, but for those who do like spending time with our p4p dates in general, not just in bed, UC’s prices are not all that high. In other word, UC prices should be compared to spending, say, 5 hours with a DH/BP/agency/indie/deai escort to be apples-to-apples, so to speak.
4 - UC furnishes some valuable services beyond those that the cheaper options provide. It is supposed to minimize the time and effort required to arrange a date (though this often doesn’t work in practice in my experience). It provides *relatively* accurate information on your date, including club assessments of her “level”, accurate photos and videos (taken by the club in most cases but verified to be the woman you will meet in any case), and some other indicators of what sort of date she might be. There is *relatively* little tendency to exaggerate or hype the desirability of their female members compared to the other options/services guys might use. The selection is also *extremely* large, especially if your Japanese is good enough for dating purposes, around a 1000 women in Tokyo!
All of this said, I should be clear that I am not a total fan of or advocate for UC; it has definite shortcomings too. In fact, I have stopped using UC for the present, and I’ll say more about why in later posts. But it is not on account of their prices, and the goal of this post is to try to give a fair/balanced perspective on the cost issue which I think the quoted post above misrepresents.
-Ww