The site, Beautifulpeople.com, which was launched in Denmark several years ago, will now operate as one unified website across the globe, the Telegraph reported today.

The lonely hearts website has currently some 180,000 members, who were asked to submit a photograph of themselves, allowing other members to decide through an online rating system whether they were attractive enough to be admitted.

Only about one in five applications to the website succeed in getting through the rating system, which draw flak from various quarters for being superficial and discriminating people who are relatively less attractive.

Greg Hodge, managing director of the site, however, defends the process and says there is nothing wrong in creating a club of beautiful people in the world.

"Is it shallow to want to be with someone you're attracted to? If you are in a bar or a club and you are going to approach someone, you'll approach someone you're attracted to. There's nothing shallow in that," he says.

"People are fed up wasting time and money meeting unattractive people on the net," he argues.

The website, which has presence in the US and the UK currently, promises successful applicants "glamorous parties, a jet-set global network" and "potential contracts from top modelling agencies".

Source: articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com