(image: Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, July 22 (Korea Bizwire) — Four out of five multilevel marketing salespeople in South Korea earned no sponsor allowance at all last year, the country’s antitrust regulator said Thursday.
The nation’s multilevel marketing sales totaled 5.18 trillion won (US$3.96 billion) last year, up almost 4 percent from a year ago, with the total amount of sponsor allowance estimated at 1.77 trillion won, up 5.5 percent year on year, according to the Fair Trade Commission (FTC).
The number of multilevel marketing companies fell to 120 last year, down two from a year before, with the number of multilevel marketing salespeople estimated at 7.3 million, down 11.7 percent year on year.
Multilevel marketing salespeople earn sponsor allowance from multilevel marketing companies depending on their sales performance and that of their subordinate salespeople. The most popular items being sold include health food, cosmetics and medical devices.
The FTC’s survey, however, showed that the share of the multilevel marketing salespeople who earned any sponsor allowance remained low at 19.2 percent, or 1.39 million people.
Even among those who earned sponsorship allowance, 82.3 percent or 1.15 million people earned less than 500,000 won (US$382) in a year. The share of those who earned more than 30 million won in a year was limited only to 0.1 percent, or 10,596 people.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
