Update: I finally found time to crunch some numbers. It turns out that between 2008 and 2013 the number of people who got paid from promoting WorldVentures went down, from around 30% to close to 20%. Based on their 2013/2014 numbers WorldVentures pay out an amazing 10% in commissions, which probably is the least of all network marketing companies…
There are plenty of websites explaining the WorldVentures business model, so I will only do a quick summary of it. WorldVentures is a travel club, you join, you pay a monthly fee, and this is supposed to save you money when you go on holiday. They claim that by using their travel booking website you will save big money – many have compared their travel booking site with others and claim that you will get the same prices, if not better, booking your holiday with someone else. The main reason is that they don’t include the flights in their pricing, this mean losing out on the great deals other booking sites offer when you book everything with them.
We can argue if their product is good or bad, but there is no doubt that they have a product, and they make it look really nice. The big question are; do people use their product? If you are to pay 200 USD to join, and thereafter 25 to 55 USD per month to save money on travel you better start traveling. If the WorldVentures travel product don’t save you a lot of money, I guess we can assume that not a lot of people will join as customers. This is what the Norwegian authorities (lotteritilsynet) came to when looking into the WorldVentures business in Norway. It turned out that 95% of the sales was related to joining and monthly fees. In Europe more than 50% of a company’s sales must be product related, so it could seem that WorldVentures have a problem, in Europe at least.
So if customers don’t make up all the sales (hundreds of millions per year), who do? The answer is simple, their representatives purchase the travel subscription. Even if they don’t have too, as there is no requirement that they will have to purchase any products, most representatives pay the monthly travel fee. In addition, they pay 25 USD per month which does not generate any commissions, in order to be qualified for commissions. You are probably thinking that this sound really stupid, why would someone pay 25 USD per month to be qualified for commissions, and then pay another 25 to 100 for travel discounts? The simple reality is that all representatives are trained into thinking that each and one of them must contribute towards the success of the company and other distributors, and therefore pay to support the WorldVentures business model.
OK, you have spent several hundred dollars to join WorldVentures, and you will probably spend around 75 to 125 USD every month to stay qualified and help generate sales/commissions. But will you make any money? Most lightly not. The WorldVentures pay plan is very complicated, and it seem designed so that most distributors will not make much money. Over 70% of the representatives fail to earn any commissions. The average representative earn 325 USD per year. 1% of the distributors earn a yearly income above the poverty level (they share around 75% of all commissions). Compared to other MLM companies, this is really bad, the average MLM company will pay around 2% of their distributors a decent annual income.
Conclusion; WorldVentures is not a business I would ever consider, to be honest, I find it difficult to understand why anyone would consider it. As a MLM business it pays less than average, and their pay plan is made so complicated I have to assume they have done it to hide how bad the pay plan is for most people. And if you can book your travel with other booking sites for free, and get the same great deal, why would anyone pay a monthly fee to WorldVentures? That leaves only one reason, people pay to generate commissions, which is getting very close to a pyramid scheme…
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