Oh ya.. do u know that Amway did sell CK perfume? U will now know tat one day Amway might sell Microsoft product.

--This is not an MLM promotion thread. I heard about this "business" from someone I know and I would like some input from forummers here on whether this business model is legit, or it's just another one of those concealed Ponzi-Pyramid schemes.--

Today while at dinner with a few people I know, I came upon a discussion for something called Score-A by a company called Kenshido International Sdn. Bhd.

Resource:
1. http://www.score-a.com.my/
2. http://www.skor-a.com.my/
3. http://www.kenshido.com/

From what I understand by the explanations I got, it seems like a destined-to-collapse pyramid scheme to me. I'll try explaining it here. Any information on this "business" would be very much appreciated.

**Again, this is NOT a promotion for an MLM/Pyramid/Ponzi business**

The Product
Okay so from what I understand, Kenshido has developed a online education program. Basically what this program does is that, you have an account with Score-A and you can log in to do question papers for subjects thought in schools. It's just like how people used to do questions on revision books, but it's online. Also this web application has a number of features, it does grading for the online exams, sends the scores to the child's parents via SMS and so on.

In my opinion, this online exam thing is nothing beyond what an ordinary Multimedia University (MMU) student from the Faculty of Information Technology (FIT) can do for their Final Year Projects.

Kenshido makes money, I guess, through the subscription fee which you have to pay for the Score-A account, which is insanely expensive.

The Business
Alright, now for the business part which is the fishy part.

Normally when a legit company creates this kind of software with the legit intention to improve education while making some profit from it, the company would try to engage the government, schools, tuition centres and parents. They would also sell CDs and DVDs for the account and other apps through prominent bookstores like Popular, MPH and Kinokunia.

However, this Kenshido seems to have taken what I think is an MLM approach for distributing and selling it's Score-A product. As I understand it, this is how it works:

*quick notes:
Kenshido calls what we know as web accounts as "Portals"
Kenshido calls what we know as account subscription extension as "Top Up"
Figures such as prices are rough figures, I can't remember the exact amount.
Error on my part is +/- RM50 for all except profit calculation where error is +/- RM300

- You invest about RM1780.00 in a 5-account pack of Score-A
- You find 5 people to sell these accounts to for about RM620.00 each, which gives the buyer 6-months validity (only!!)
- If you manage to sell all 5, your profit would be: Profit = Revenue - Cost = (RM620.00 x 5) - RM1780 = RM1320
- After 6-months, the buyer will have to buy an extension, which is another RM200++ (yeah... not joking)
- When your buyers pay to extend, you earn commission

Additionally, you can recruit other sellers too, who like you will buy 5-account packs and resell it to others, and you earn commission too when they buy the 5-account packs (I think... not so sure also). And then each of your recruited sellers will recruit more sellers and the pyramid grows la... Apparently the target is to get 14 "generation" or layers of recruits under you, which will apparently help you earn RM1192.00 per day.

The Fishy-ness
1. The pyramid keeps growing at a rapid rate. Not only do you need more sellers, each of these sellers need to sell the accounts to other users (parents of school-children).

2. Since the product is an e-learning, online examination thing, access to computer WITH internet connection is vital. The number of households in Malaysia with school-going children which has a computer with internet connection and parents who are tech-aware is very small compared to the population. Basically, the pie isn't very big, just look at Malaysia's broadband penetration rate, and subtract out all families without school-going children and all families who can't afford about RM800/year on a bunch of online test papers, which you can get in print for like RM12 from Popular.

3. The pricing of the product itself is extremely high for such a simple application. It's unjustifiable for most middle-to-low-income parents to fork out hundreds of Ringgit just for a system that puts exam questions online and lets parents see the results of the child's performance through SMS and other means. It's much better to just buy a few exam question books from Popular Bookstore and let the child do it and mark the questions once the child is done. Also doing it on paper allows for better simulation of a real exam, rather than clicking answers on a screen.

4. For a company that is trying to promote their product in a genuine way, I don't see why they need to resort to MLM methods to promote their product. MLM methods serves only to tarnish the brand name of the product and company.

The Question
Does anybody here have any experiences with Skor-A or Kenshido International Sdn. Bhd.? Please do share your knowledge here.

Also, anyone know how to verify if this is a legit business? I see MLM schemes becoming more and more sophisticated nowadays, I don't know if the current Malaysian laws are keeping up with this.

Let me test it for another 10 years, then I will feedback the result to you again. The company has 10 years good performance. That is all I can help for those still not sure about

YOu have to think that MLM is just like a small franchise program that helps you do a business with a small fraction of money. Then, when you ahve a business, do you just sit there and wait for your money to grow?? No su1ch thing will happen unless you're really establish and have enough money in the banks with a FD accounts, then you can wish for.

All richest/millionaires people in the wordl are doing business.

And they worked hard everyday and every seconds counts. Even Donald Trump also have to worked hard everyday to ensure that the money that he has will grow more and more.

I read most of the replies here and seems like few people tends only to understand and thinks that Score A is only about MLM and Network Marketing, and don't really want to understand what the products is. Score A is a products and endorsed by the Ministry of Education (recently launched by our TPM too). If you're joining the Distributor for Score A, you have to understand that you're throwing your money for "BUSINESS". This is the main thing that people tend to forget while dealing with MLM business. MLM is also a business that give you an opportunity to grow your money with small investment and gain more money until you reach millionaires/rich status. Any business will involve profit and loss and if anybody don't understand business matters, please study and learn the first and foremost of business activities.

Any business required good product before you can market it widely. Therefore, Score A is the products and not the MLM. The business to market the Score A is related and fall under the MLM-type of business as sanctioned and license by ROB/C (AJL license). It is similar to Hai-O, Amway, VEMMA and the rest of the world.

YOu have to think that MLM is just like a small franchise program that helps you do a business with a small fraction of money. Then, when you ahve a business, do you just sit there and wait for your money to grow?? No such thing will happen unless you're really establish and have enough money in the banks with a FD accounts, then you can wish for.

All richest/millionaires people in the wordl are doing business. And they worked hard everyday and every seconds counts. Even Donald Trump also have to worked hard everyday to ensure that the money that he has will grow more and more.

Same like MLM. It is a business and once you enter a business, you have to work hard to earn money. Same as other business. Simple as that!!!

well,
i had been dealing with education related line for years
As far as i know,
anything which really direct or indirect related to Education, will have to apply approval from LAN

i don't see any related approvals from this company.
From this point, it's providing education services but Pure Trading company

I don't see tuition centre needing approval from LAN.

I saw an ugly side of Score A when a 'successful' distributor met me and told me (or boasted?) that he got a headmaster of a school to sign up under him and he earned 5 figures income easily after that..How it works?

The headmaster implemented a rule that every student need to purchase a login in order to get access to the past year exam via web (all under the name of embracing IT) Those who doesn't have computer or internet access at home must do it in school's computer lab
Please, tell me that is not a sick way to get rich...You must be the most selfish person on earth to do that to school-kids for your own monetary gain...