A different class

Tabo believes prostitutes are not allowed to select their clients. She enjoys more power to pick which clients to meet for dinner, wine or sex.

Like other girls in the profession, Tabo finds her clients through the Internet and she prefers well-educated men with a stable job who are between 30 and 40.

"Honestly, if you ask me when I am going to stop it. I could tell you that when money is so easy to make, you don't feel shame anymore. Quite the opposite, I feel kind of lucky that I have a beautiful body to sell," she wrote in her blog.

There are no figures on the number of girls involved in the industry. However, a survey conducted by non-governmental organization Hong Kong Christian Service last year found that 34 percent of about 600 girls between 12 and 20 said they would consider being a compensated dating girl.

About 60 percent said they would sell their bodies for the quick money, and 28 percent said they do it because they enjoy sex.

More than 40 percent feel that compensated dating is different from prostitution because "sex is not necessarily involved and they have feelings for their clients."

Tse Kei-leung, a social worker at Yang Memorial Methodist Social Service, told the Global Times that they first stumbled upon the phenomenon in 2006 after some teenage girls told them that they had older boyfriends.

"We thought we were out of date and that maybe young girls dating older men was a new trend. However, when we further asked why they wanted to date older men, they told us they did it for a fee," Tse said.