[Esmeralfaf]

By Simon Parry: 00:57 GMT, 20 May 2012

In the film The Social Network, which tells the story of the world’s most popular website, he was portrayed as square and straight-laced.

Eduardo Saverin provided the early seed money which enabled his friend Mark Zuckerberg, who came up with the idea for Facebook in his
bedroom at Harvard, to realise his dream of connecting the world.

On screen at least, Saverin, now 30, always wore a suit and sniffily disdained the excessive partying of his fellow students

Zuckerberg, though hardly the personification of cool himself, seemed almost groovy by comparison.

But eight years on, the $100 billion (£65 billion) flotation of shares in the social networking website has highlighted the intriguing way in
which the two men’s lives have shifted.

For one thing, it is Saverin – who yesterday saw his £600 investment in Facebook (later topped up with £18,000) turn into a £1.28 billion
fortune – who appears to be enjoying himself the most.

In fact, he is having a ball. He glides around Singapore, where he now lives, in a Bentley, alighting on one champagne-fuelled party after
another. Beautiful girls fling themselves at him. Every so often, if he feels like it, he thoughtfully dabbles in business, mainly investing in
internet start-ups.



Being in Singapore also allows him to pursue a lifestyle beyond the scrutiny of the media.

Singapore is one of the most privacy-conscious cities in the world and has no paparazzi and no tabloid press. But for the occasional picture
in society magazines, his nocturnal exploits go largely unreported.

Most nights find him on the town, normally at Singapore’s most exclusive club, Filter, where he keeps a £2,500-a-night VIP table and routinely
spends thousands on champagne.

One of Saverin’s most intriguing new business partners is Rachel Kum, who represented Singapore in a Miss Universe contest and last year
set up a cosmetics company called Rachel K Cosmetics. In a promotional video, she describes Saverin as her ‘friend and mentor’.



Kum, 27, outraged Singaporeans when photographs of her simulating oral sex on a birthday cake surfaced on the internet after she won her
beauty title. She also admitted having breast implants.

Saverin appears on the promotional video for Rachel K Cosmetics, saying vaguely as he justifies his investment: ‘It really inspired me to see that
she went from Miss Singapore to sort of pushing her own line. She is going with her passion.’

With no job to restrain him and unlimited resources, Saverin frequently leaves his friends exhausted and financially embarrassed if they maintain
dignity by picking up part of the bill.

His core social network in Singapore is a group of American and young Singaporean male friends who join him at his table at Filter, drink mostly
on his account and control access to him.

On nights when he is not clubbing, Saverin has been seen at exclusive bars in Singapore, such as the swanky 71st-floor New Asia Bar in the
Swissotel. There he buys £25 cocktails for his Asian girlfriends.

He lives in a 5,000 sq ft penthouse apartment in the plush ION apartment block in Orchard Road, Singapore’s equivalent to Oxford Street, one of
the world’s most expensive places to live. When he first arrived in Singapore there was enormous excitement in the business community.

It was hoped, assumed even, that he would invest in the technology industry and raise its profile internationally.

Three years on, however, Saverin is rarely seen outside nightclubs and is said, wryly and with some exaggeration, to have accepted then turned
down at the last minute more invitations to functions than he has attended.

Saverin’s low profile in the business world and his habit of agreeing to appear at functions and then cancelling his appearance at short notice has
frustrated Singapore’s tight-knit expatriate business community.