A hitherto unknown company enters the market and makes a fervent bid to connect with people by launching high-decibel advertising campaigns. SpeakAsia Onlines business model is hazy but the proposition oodles of money for answering a few questions that dont require racking ones brains is too attractive to ignore. All of this puts the company in a position where it can milk individuals,some driven by need,some by greed. There is no clarity yet on the supposedly Singapore-based,consumer survey companys business model. It has been alleged it might be running a ponzi scheme,essentially a fraudulent investment plan in which investors are paid not from the real profits a company makes but from the investments it generates by roping in new investors. Such businesses are modelled on luring in more and more individuals and using the money raised to pay commissions to old customers,with the company pocketing the difference. The Indian authorities are yet to verify it,having been caught napping during the loud noise SpeakAsia made in the past four months via flashy advertisements in leading newspapers such as The Times of India,and on the IPL incidentally the most expensive TV programme to buy advertising on,a 10-second spot costing between Rs 4 lakh and Rs 8 lakh. At least one of the companys claims,that of being headquartered in Singapore,has proved incorrect. A search on the web site of Singapores Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority shows SpeakAsia is blacklisted in the country for non-compliance. The companys officials have been of little help in shedding light on its antecedents and the current drive. At a press conference in Mumbai last week,its India CEO Manoj Kumar told reporters only what the company did not do. We are not a direct selling company. We are not a multi-level marketing company. On being prodded,he asked reporters to accompany him to Singapore where he could show them how it worked. The Indian Express spoke to one of SpeakAsias Delhi-based subscribers named Ashish (he wouldnt share his second name) who claims to have inducted many relatives and friends in the business in the past few months. He asserted the company ran a fair business. They are here to make people rich in short time and there is nothing wrong with that, he said. A presentation on SpeakAsias business model sourced from Ashish says it runs an online consumer survey business and the surveys are done for consumer products and services companies that want a feel of the consumer mindset. Anybody with an internet connection and an annual income of Rs 50,000 can participate in the surveys and get paid. To participate,one has to buy the membership that comes in two packages. Standard members pay Rs 6,000 for a 26-week period; in return,they get to fill up to two surveys a week for Rs 350 each. A premium membership bought for Rs 11,000 entails an income up to Rs 1,000 a week (Rs 500 per survey),Rs 4,000 a month and Rs 52,000 a year. A customer can either buy three or nine sub-memberships. The lure is to maximise ones income up to 10 times a year by simply answering a few simple questions on ones consumption habits. Besides this active income is the offer to make passive income by bringing in new subscribers. Each new induction makes one richer by Rs 1,000. Initially,SpeakAsia claimed these surveys were meant for clients such as ICICI Bank,Bata,Nestle and other leading mobile and consumer products companies. But these companies have denied having any contract with SpeakAsia. Its CEO and lawyer were not forthcoming with the names of other clients. There is no clarity whether there are real end-users of these surveys but the fine print in the presentation makes it clear that the membership fee is not for the right to fill in surveys but for the subscription of an online bulletin or the e-magazine Surveys Today. The companys lawyer,Mumbai-based advocate Ashok Saragoi,said in last weeks press conference that surveys were not their core business. The company is not selling surveys to its subscribers. It is selling electronic magazines and surveys are merely an added benefit offered to them. He said surveys can be withdrawn as and when the company desired. Unaware of this,Ashish believes surveys are the core offering. Since,on the papers,the company doesnt promise peddling surveys to subscribers,Ashish cannot seek legal recourse against the company. Even without surveys,however,he can keep making money by roping in more and more new subscribers. The company claims to have close to two million subscribers in India and had a target of around 10 million by the year-end. It said it raised $80.5 million in revenues in the past three quarters,$60 million from subscriptions and the rest from marketing services it provided using the database of customer information gathered. Of the $80.5 million,it gave $52 million back to existing customers. One remarkable fact is that SpeakAsia has no registered office in India. Authorities such as the Ministry of Company Affairs or the Securities and Exchange Board of India have no official records of the company. Saragoi says it runs an online business that doesnt require any permission. There is no transaction trail either to nail the company because it doesnt charge the subscription fee directly from the subscribers. The subscribers,in fact,pay the fee to the people who rope them in and they,in turn,to those who introduced them to the scheme. This goes up to the level of some franchisees without a direct link to the company. Media reports suggest that MCA and RBI have begun investigations against the company. Saragoi,however,denied knowledge of any probe. The complete story behind SpeakAsia is yet to unravel. Hazy Picture SpeakAsia claims to be headquartered in Singapore but the web site of Singapores Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority shows that it is blacklisted in the country for non-compliance Customers believe surveys are the core offering but the company says it is selling subscribers electronic magazines,surveys are only an added offer SpeakAsia has no registered office in India,govt authorities have no official records,but company says an online business doesnt require any permission SpeakAsia has named survey clients such as ICICI Bank,Bata and Nestle,but these companies have denied any such contract
