BehindMLM first reviewed Got Back up back in 2015.

The MLM company is part of Global Virtual Opportunities (GVO), owned by Joel Therien.

Not sure how Got Backup has gone throughout the years but recently there’s been an uptick in the business.

SimilarWeb tracked an increase in Got Backup website traffic, from ~53,400 in June to ~121,900 in August. Most of this traffic is coming from the Netherlands (49%), UK (10%), Australia (10%) and Canada (9%).

Got Backup’s revitalization prompted several readers to reach out and request an updated review.

Today we revisit Go Backup to see where the MLM opportunity is at eight years later.

The Company

Got Backup fails to provide ownership or executive information on its website.

In the footer of Got Backup’s website Global Virtual Opportunities is mentioned, along with a Texas corporate address.

Joel Therein (right) does appear in an embedded (and for some reason photoshopped) Got Backup marketing video, but this is easy to miss.

Clearly Got Backup isn’t trying to hide its association with GVO. Nonetheless, why Got Backup doesn’t provide consumers with ownership and executive information is unclear.

Got Backup’s Products

Got Backup markets a monthly subscription that provides desktop and mobile app cloud backup services.

  • $8.99 a month for a 1 TB personal backup plan
  • $9.97 a month for a 6 TB Family backup plan (6 accounts)

Got Backup claims their cloud backup service is secure because it’s “encrypted with military grade encryption”.

Got Backup’s Compensation Plan

Got Backup’s compensation plan combines recruitment and sales of the backup subscription.

Recruitment Commissions

Every Got Backup affiliate pays $9.97 a month.

Got Backup uses this fee to pay recruitment commissions via a “two by infinity” matrix.

Each week the matrix is filled chronologically based on when a Got Backup affiliate joined.

Commissions are paid per position in the matrix. Specific recruitment commission amounts are not disclosed.

Subscription Commissions

Subscription commissions are paid on backup service subscriptions sold to retail customers and recruited affiliates.

Got Backup pays subscription commissions via a unilevel compensation structure.

A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1):

If any level 1 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team.

If any level 2 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.

With respect to depth, Got Backup only pays on the deepest leg (the leg with the most levels of recruitment).

  • a 200% commission is paid on the first month of personally referred subscription enrolments
  • 25% is paid each month thereafter on personally referred subscription enrolments
  • 25% is paid per subscription enrolment on the deepest unilevel team leg (referred to as the “payline”)

Note that Got Backup doesn’t specify what the above percentages correspond to in dollar amounts.

Matching Bonus

Got Backup pays a 25% Matching Bonus on subscription commissions earned by personally recruited affiliates, as well as an affiliate’s deepest unilevel leg (payline).

Joining Got Backup

Got Backup affiliate membership is $20 and then $9.97 a month.

Got Backup Conclusion

In 2015 Got Backup had no retail offering, everyone was an affiliate. This was an obvious pyramid recruitment model.

In 2023 Got Backup has separated the MLM opportunity from its backup subscription service. This is a step in the right direction.

Unfortunately using affiliate membership fees to pay commissions leaves us back at square one.

It’s possible to join Got Backup as an affiliate for $20 and then $9.97 a month, recruit others who do the same and earn commissions.

This is a pyramid scheme business model.

Don’t want to miss out? The faster you upgrade, the better position you’ll secure in the matrix.

Retail backup subscription quotas would eliminate pyramid concerns but Got Backup doesn’t have these.

A secondary company-wide pyramid might also exist if the majority of Got Backup backup subscriptions are held by affiliates. This would suggest Got Backup’s backup service is not retail viable.

To independently evaluate this I ran a quick search for “cloud backup service”. Here’s what came up (prices accurate at time of publication but subject to change):

  • Backblaze – unlimited backups for $7 a month
  • Carbonite – unlimited backups for $7.99 a month
  • iDrive – 5TB for $69.95 first year ($5.82 a month) and then $99.50 annually ($8.29 a month)

One area Got Backup is better is that it covers six computers for $9.97 a month. Data wise however Got Backup’s 1 TB per device is comparatively pretty bad.

Got Backup’s single device $8.99 subscription is absolutely not retail viable. I get the sense it’s just there to upsell people to $9.97 a month.

As with our original review, a quick pyramid test you can do as a prospective Got Backup affiliate is ask your upline how many active retail subscriptions they have.

Weigh that against their active recruited affiliates (you’re looking at a minimum 50/50 dollar split in payments each month), and go from there.

Between Got Backup’s questionable retail viability and affiliate membership fee pyramid scheme, eight years later and I’m still not seeing much to like here.