UPDATED on 11 August 2021 at 10.45am to incorporate response received from BizGurukul
BizGurukul, as it describes itself, is an online e-learning platform that sells skill development courses related to entrepreneurship, career and business development and additionally provides training to earn money with the help of social media. However, even though BizGurukul has its own website where these courses have been advertised, one cannot buy them directly from the website, without putting in the sponsor ID.
One must go via what they call their affiliate program, which incidentally, is being projected as spectacularly lucrative. More importantly, this opportunity to make big money has nothing to do with either the course content or the qualifications, age or work experience of the affiliate. It manifests through the commission that BizGurukul pays to the affiliate for every person who buys the course material.
This is unlike other sales program that allows consumers to purchase directly from the websites without using an affiliate link. BizGurukul by contrast sells its course material through affiliate links ONLY, and such a link is provided to the potential buyer.
It is also unlike other affiliate programs wherein a potential affiliate is not required to purchase the parent company’s product. But to become a BizGurukul affiliate, one must compulsorily buy one of the courses on offer. There is no compulsion, however, to become an affiliate after making the purchase. The affiliate then proceeds to sell the course to others, earning a hefty commission from the company for each closure of a sale.
Upon enrolment, students get their own dashboard where courses are pre-recorded and only training and webinars for how to earn as an affiliate are live as well as pre-recorded. Training is provided to new affiliates so that they know how to promote the product and start earning. This training is provided free of cost.
Thus, after making the purchase, the buyer stands at a forked path, one going towards utilising the knowledge gained from the course for seeking a job or setting up one’s own business, and the other, leading to the affiliate program, which entails selling the course in the market and earning a commission through each sale.
Most prefer the latter due to the dazzling display of the phenomenal wealth earned by affiliates, prominently displayed in the BizGurukul advertisements.
Affiliates who have been asked if this business model resembles the multi-level marketing (MLM) model, usually respond by claiming that BizGurukul is a private company under the Companies Act 2013 and is registered in New Delhi, with the registrar of companies under the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA). However, their legal status does not justify their business practices.
Hence BizGurukul appears to be neither fish nor fowl but an effective red herring indeed, as in the garb of a marketing company, they are actually an affiliate program behind the façade.
Why have they done that?
LinkedIn Post
Currently, one can become an affiliate marketer for any business by promoting the products of the company on any social media handle or a website. People can create their own blog pages, and obviously, they will need to purchase domain names, and SSL certificates but they do not have to pay for affiliate marketing itself. To become an affiliate marketer, BizGurukul requires people to enrol for their course. The course is thus a camouflage for the affiliate program.
The analogy provided by the affiliate in this screenshot is thus flawed, because it does not show the amount paid by the affiliate to purchase the course.
BizGurukul Courses: Are they worth it?
BizGurukul course packages are divided into three categories: Gold, Sapphire and Platinum, with sub-courses, in different price brackets. Buying any one of the packages requires the customer to provide sponsor details, that is, information about the affiliate, who closed the sale.
BizGurukul also offers live webinars and pre-recorded or live training sessions for increasing sales. In these training sessions, BizGurukul affiliates are provided training on how to increase the sale of their courses.
However, we do not know, who is teaching these courses.
(A screenshot of Copywriting course content offered by BizGurukul)
(A screenshot of copywriting courses available for free on other platforms)
(A screenshot of courses offered by BizGurukul in their Sapphire package)
(A screenshot of similar marketing courses available for free on other platforms)
As an institute that focuses on imparting and training students with the necessary digital marketing skills, BizGurukul has never advertised the success stories of its students. Unlike other institutes that bring their research to the table, BizGurukul does not offer industry insights, instead it actively only seeks to expand the affiliate programs, while the course is just for namesake to prevent it from looking like a pure MLM.
In a typical MLM, the sponsor gets a commission for recruiting a new person below his level without any limit and can also help his downline to recruit new persons below their levels. There are two structures, one the sponsor increases the number of downlines below his level horizontally (1: n or many) and two, he increases his downline in binary mode vertically (1:2).
Most MLMs pay commission on recruiting new persons and then the ‘so-called’ royalty income on the number of new recruits in binary mode. BizGurukul does not have royalty payments since its entire business model is based on selling its education package to as many people as possible in ‘1: n’ module. For this, it pays commission directly to the sponsor based on the package bought by the sponsor and the recruit. (See image below)
Furthermore, the LinkedIn profile of BizGurukul founders has no mention of digital marketing skills. As an institute that focuses on imparting and training students with the necessary digital marketing skills, BizGurukul has never advertised the success stories of its students.
Let us go through the LinkedIn profile of BizGurukul Founders.
Rohit Kumar Sharma- co-founder, business head. Graduated in 2014 from Northern India Engineering College. Although BizGurukul was incorporated in 2020, Rohit mentions in his profile that he has been chief operating officer at BizGurukul since 2011. Rohit has 6,348 followers on LinkedIn, but only has two or three likes on his posts, indicating a very low engagement rate (perhaps his courses are not helping him anymore!) and many of his followers are repeating themselves frequently.
Existing Digital Marketing institutes
In this section, I am including links to some websites of digital marketing institutes that offer different types of courses with live classes (online or offline), where you can purchase the courses directly from the websites without any affiliates, and that have strong placement opportunities as well.
and there are many more.
(Note– I am not affiliated with these institutes. I performed a simple Google search to find additional institutes offering programs in digital marketing. I intend to draw a comparison between these websites, their manner of operations and BizGurukul’s manner of operations and its website)
Is BizGurukul misleading young people?
BizGurukul affiliates post lucrative job openings on LinkedIn, with no eligibility requirements. Well, they say that their affiliate program is open only for people, who are 18 plus. See the screenshot below. Yet, the same affiliate in my contact has posted a WhatsApp status showing earnings made by another affiliate by selling BizGurukul courses. This other affiliate is a student in the 10th standard! Well, she may be 18+ and still in 10th standard! Hard to believe.
As a next step, the affiliates post extremely enticing content and screenshots of their earnings, sometimes even describing what they purchased with the money earned as commissions.
Lack of Regulations
An increasing number of online skill-based programs are available that offer certificates, diplomas, training, and tutoring. Moreover, these courses enable students to develop skills that make them more employable, since curricula offered by universities do not reflect the skills demanded by industries.
Though these institutes offer certificate programs, they fall under unregulated education sectors and are registered as private companies. When designing courses, they set their own course structure, fees, quality, methods of evaluation, and training. In absence of any regulations that provide minimal benchmarks for the course content offered by such private companies, there is a proliferation of companies advertising lucrative incomes for graduates once they join their courses.
Currently, online regulations by the University Grants Commission (UGC) govern only universities or institutes deemed to be universities, whereas All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) regulations govern institutes that provide technical courses.
Even if such unregulated e-learning platforms are classified as e-commerce entities, but there are no specified quality standards for such courses. Hence, it is difficult to dispute the quality of services.
Why must action against BizGurukul be taken?
We are staring history in the face. Like BizGurukul, there was a company by the name E-Biz, which offered various IT-related courses through its affiliate marketing program.
E-biz courses had little or no value, but young people were attracted to the prospect of more money, easier and quicker. Over Rs5,000 crore of funds had been siphoned off by this illegal operation. In a posh area of Noida, the office space of E-biz was spread across a multi-storeyed construction of 500 sq. yards.
In March this year, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a prosecution complaint against Ebiz.com Pvt Ltd and its managing director Pawan Malhan in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) special court.
According to the ED, the accused ran an MLM scheme for the sale of worthless products like computer education packages which were downloaded freely from the Internet. It says, “Ebiz products were only for name’s sake. The primary purpose of the members joining the scheme was to get a commission from enrolments and not for the products. They extensively advertised their commission model in which very high commissions were paid to sponsoring members for enrolment of new members.”
BizGurukul affiliates often mislead young people by showing how they earn money in lakhs in a month, as well as by purchasing expensive accessories like iPhones, laptops, and cars. By doing so, they encourage people to take up BizGurukul courses and register quickly.
It is pertinent here to quote the cautionary note issued by the Reserve Bank of India on 1 January 2015: “The Reserve Bank of India has cautioned the public against Multi-level Marketing (MLM) activities so that investors do not fall prey to unscrupulous entities.”
Explaining the functioning of these entities, the Reserve Bank stated that MLM, chain marketing or pyramid structure schemes promise easy or quick money upon enrolment of members. Income under such schemes majorly comes from enrolling more and…