# Market America
Market America Worldwide | SHOP.COM is a Greensboro, North Carolina-based product brokerage and e-commerce company that sells branded and exclusive products through an independent distributor network under its "UnFranchise" business model.
## Facts
- Founded: 1992
- Headquarters: 1302 Pleasant Ridge Road, Greensboro, North Carolina, 27409, United States
- Category: Direct Selling / MLM, Product Brokerage, E-commerce
- Compensation plan: Binary (company calls it the "Management Performance Compensation Plan," a two-leg/binary structure requiring balanced volume on left and right organizations)
- Ownership: Private (was publicly traded on NASDAQ from 1994 until taken private in 2001 by its founders)
- Key markets: United States, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Mexico
- Website: https://www.marketamerica.com/
- Phone: (336) 605-0040

## Overview
Market America Worldwide, doing business alongside its e-commerce arm SHOP.COM, was founded in 1992 by JR and Loren Ridinger and is headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina. The company describes itself as a product brokerage and one-to-one marketing business that develops its own exclusive brands (spanning health, nutrition, cosmetics, and household categories) while also aggregating third-party retail brands for sale through SHOP.COM's online marketplace. Products are distributed through a network of independent distributors, called "UnFranchise Business Owners," who purchase a startup package, maintain a personal purchase requirement, and operate a company-provided online storefront. The company's own official training materials describe its compensation structure as a binary ("two-leg") plan, formally named the Management Performance Compensation Plan, under which commissions are calculated from balanced sales volume accrued on two sides of a distributor's organization. Market America was briefly a publicly traded company (NASDAQ) starting in 1994 before its founders took it private again in 2001. It has since expanded beyond the United States into a number of additional countries, operating internationally through country-specific SHOP.COM and Market America entities.
Canonical: https://plondo.com/business-from-home/companies/market-america

## Sources
- Market America official site: https://www.marketamerica.com/
- BBB Business Profile, Market America SHOP.COM (confirms address, phone, founding date): https://www.bbb.org/us/nc/greensboro/profile/internet-marketing-services/market-america-shopcom-0503-4002355
- Wikipedia, Market America (confirms founders, ownership/NASDAQ history): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_America
- UnFranchise official docs, Chapter 8: Management Performance Compensation Plan (MPCP): https://usacan-eng.documents.unfranchise.com/chapter-8-management-performance-compensation-plan-mpcp/
- UnFranchise official docs, Chapter 1: The Company: https://usacan-eng.documents.unfranchise.com/chapter-1-the-company/