BehindMLM final checked in on Dubli again in 2019.
Following tens of tens of millions in losses through the years, 5 out of father or mother firm Ominto’s board members resigned in mid 2018.
A yr later it was revealed the SEC had been investigating the corporate for securities fraud. Ominto settled the allegations.
Dubli founder Michael Hansen stayed on, determined to maintain the enterprise going.
Over the next years, amid document on-line spending as a result of world lockdowns, Dubli drifted into obscurity.
The enterprise not too long ago popped up on my radar, however not as Dubli.
Dubli now goes by SaveMate, and immediately we’re revisiting the MLM alternative for a standing replace.
A go to to Dubli’s web site area is meant to routinely redirect to SaveMate’s web site. That performance wasn’t working.
Dubli isn’t talked about anyplace on SaveMate’s web site. Neither is father or mother firm Ominto.
SaveMate’s web site social hyperlinks are… a bit odd:
- SaveMate’s YouTube hyperlink factors to Dubli’s YouTube channel, which hasn’t been up to date in 5 years.
- SaveMate’s Instagram hyperlink takes you to the account of “savemate.de”. The profile hasn’t been up to date in 4 and a half years and the area is now not energetic.
- SaveMate’s Pinterest hyperlink takes you to an deserted Ominto SaveMate branded profile.
- SaveMate’s Twitter hyperlink factors to what seems to be a private profile of some random particular person.
- And SaveMate’s FaceBook profile factors to a non-existent web page.
Hmm.
Clicking on the “about us” part of SaveMate’s web site reveals a advertising pitch. Who owns SaveMate is just not disclosed anyplace on the web site.
Within the footer of SaveMate’s web site we be taught “SaveMate is a registered Trademark of MAD Rewards Ltd.”
Mad Rewards operates from its personal web site area. It seems to be a white label cashback platform:
Develop your buyer base worldwide together with your very personal branded MAD REWARDS Money Again web site
Apart from a company tackle in Dubai, who owns or runs Mad Rewards can be not disclosed.
I don’t know what precisely Dubli has been as much as since securities fraud, however Dubai is the MLM crime capital of the world.
Any MLM firm representing ties to Dubai immediately raises a purple flag.
Past that, Mad Rewards is a useless finish. Should you visited SaveMate’s web site, apart from the deserted YouTube channel hyperlink, you’d do not know it’s Dubli rebranded. And also you’d actually do not know who’s working the corporate.
An MLM firm being a faceless company is just not a superb look.
Armed with information of Michael Hansen’s possession of Dubli0 and Ominto, a Google search led me to this FaceBook web page:
Ominto seems to now be working as “E-ntrepreneur”.
Based in 2003, e-ntrepreneur is a worldwide advertising firm that gives individuals from all walks of life the chance to construct a profession or second-income enterprise by producing earnings from the services and products that folks purchase on-line each day.
Nevertheless you’re alleged to pronounce E-ntrepreneur, it’s not an important title.
A go to to E-ntrepreneur’s web site (the title is just not precisely nice to sort out both), reveals Villads Vest-Hansen is CEO of the corporate.
Vest-Hansen is a former Dubli affiliate. The surname isn’t misplaced on me, however I don’t know if there’s any relation to Michael Hansen.
Oddly sufficient there’s no point out of Michael Hansen on E-ntrepreneur’s web site. Should you run a seek for “michael hansen e-ntrepreneur” although, this pops up:
Seems to be like E-ntrepreneur not too long ago redesigned their web site, dropping any point out of Hansen. However for some motive they left the outdated web site pages accessible.
Michael Hansen is the Founding father of SaveMate and a Chairman of Ominto, Inc. Mr. Hansen is each SaveMate and Ominto’s chief strategist and conceptual developer.
In any occasion appears like Hansen continues to be working the present, leaving Vest-Hansen to play puppet CEO.
There isn’t a point out of Mad Rewards on E-ntrepreneur’s web site. I’m nonetheless unclear on how that matches in.
The following factor I needed to do is verify E-ntrepreneur and SaveMate are nonetheless working an MLM alternative. This proved troublesome.
There isn’t a reference to MLM on SaveMate’s web site. E-ntrepreneur’s present web site has one paragraph:
E-ntrepreneurs affords flexibility in addition to scalability: Impartial Enterprise Associates (BAs) set their very own schedule and work as many hours as they deem vital to satisfy their monetary targets.
BAs earn an revenue by sharing the advantages and financial savings alternatives of the varied services and products accessible on the SaveMate shopper buying web site.
E-ntrepreneur and SaveMate compensation plan particulars should not accessible anyplace.
By some searches to entry E-ntrepreneur’s outdated web site, I used to be in a position to dig this up:
Candidates should buy a Enterprise License (“Enterprise Package deal”) for US$ 99 upon signup.
An annual Enterprise License renewal of $39 (or equal in different currencies) will probably be charged ranging from the second yr of your membership.
I perceive that as a E-ntrepreneur Impartial Enterprise Affiliate (“BA”):
-I’ve the suitable to supply on the market SaveMate.com services and products in accordance with these Phrases and Circumstances.
-If certified, I’ve the suitable to enroll individuals as BAs within the E-ntrepreneur.
-If certified, I’ve the suitable to earn commissions pursuant to the E-ntrepreneur Compensation Plan.
Seems like E-ntrepreneur is identical pyramid scheme Dubli was working.
Dubli’s enterprise mannequin generated tens of tens of millions in losses. Altering the corporate names repeatedly doesn’t repair a damaged enterprise mannequin.
Nor does obfuscating who’s working the corporate, the compensation plan and the truth that E-ntrepreneur, SaveMate and Mad Rewards are a part of the identical MLM alternative.
As to the present standing of E-ntrepreneur, right here’s SimilarWeb’s present stats:
- Mad Rewards’ web site is useless;
- E-ntrepreneur’s web site is useless; and
- SaveMate’s web site visitors converted from Dubli in Could 2022. The location is at present at about ~13,000 visits a month, principally from Ghana (28%), Italy (20%), the US (12%) and UAE (11%).
Most of E-ntrepreneur’s recruitment is happening over FaceBook and WhatsApp.
The very last thing I’ll depart you with is exactly why Dubli and now SaveMate aren’t viable.
We reside in an age the place cashback apps will be put in without spending a dime on the click on of a button. And these apps, which began off as browser extensions, have been a factor for at the very least a decade.
Then there’s Dubli and SaveMate, charging $49 a yr for “VIP Rewards”. Certain there’s a gimped free cashback possibility, however why trouble when you may get a greater deal from rivals without spending a dime?
The present cashback market chief is Honey. As tracked by SimilarWeb, Honey’s web site receives 150,000+ visits a month.
- Honey’s cashback app has over a million installs
- Honey’s browser extension has over ten million installs
As beforehand talked about, SaveMate receives about 13,000 visits a month to its web site. SaveMate doesn’t seem to have an app, and its browser extension at present has 158 installs:
The present financial local weather apart, on-line retail completely exploded globally over the previous few years. How do you mess up this badly?
Dubli wasn’t viable. And neither is SaveMate. Charging for reductions that may be obtained elsewhere without spending a dime makes as little sense immediately because it did when Dubli launched in 2003.
