On November 2nd 2020, the BBC released a 51 minute documentary called “Unmasking the Pyramid Kings”. The documentary is based around Crowd1, claiming that the company is a pyramid scheme. The reasoning behind this claim lay mainly in the argument that Crowd1 does not have any real products for sale and relies heavily on the recruitment of new affiliates in order to generate income. On November 4th, Crowd1 published a response to the BBC documentary on their Crowd1 blog. As a Crowd1 affiliate myself, I thought it would be helpful to summarise what happened between November 2nd 2020 – November 4th 2020, so that other affiliates gain a clearer picture of the situation.
In their documentary ‘Unmasking the Pyramid Kings’ BBC presents a full 50 minute rundown of what Crowd1 is, how it works, and why it’s a pyramid scheme. The BBC states that in events such as Crowd1 online webinars or seminars, members are encouraged to invite their friends, families, and colleagues into the business. The documentary provides further arguments, detailing that Crowd1’s educational package is lifted off of someone else’s book, rendering it worthless. Throughout the documentary, the BBC interviews two former Crowd1 affiliates who expressed disappointment in the company, saying that they feel lied to and that they were promised money that never came. Towards the end of the documentary, the presenter reads part of a response from Crowd1, stating that it was incredibly long.
Two days later, on November 4th 2020, Crowd1 released an official response to the BBC documentary on the Crowd1 blog. The full response is attached to the post in both video and textual format, and is 5 pages long in total. The first misconception that Crowd1 clarifies in their response is that “[it] is not an investment opportunity, i.e it is not selling or offering any kind of financial products or services.” The response then goes on to explain that Crowd1 is solely a crowd marketing and online marketing company, and not a pyramid scheme in any way shape or form. Crowd1 receives commission for the marketing of third-company products in which they then distribute to Crowd1 affiliates. As for the lifted material in the educational packages, Crowd1 states that they have publishing rights for the content that they publish. Furthermore, regarding the two testimonials from the two disappointed affiliates, at the time the documentary was published Crowd1 had more than 17,000,000 million members. Crowd1 states that there are bound to be affiliates who are unsatisfied with their experience, and that two members in the 17,000,000 million is not a representative review of the company and its services.
In my opinion as a Crowd1 affiliate, I believe that there are a few irresponsible affiliates that misrepresent the company and what it stands for. From what I’ve seen and experiences, Crowd1 at its core is about equal opportunities regardless of sex, race, or religion. The company provides quality educational packages that bring opportunity to ambitious digital business people that might not otherwise have the chance to get a foot into the online marketplace.