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PayPal Honey

Headquarters in Los Angeles, California
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Cashback website, online coupons
Founded	October 2012 (2012-10)
Founders	George Ruan Ryan Hudson Brian Silverstein
Headquarters	Los Angeles, California, United States
Area served	Canada, United States
Key people	George Ruan (CEO) Ryan Hudson (Co-founder)
Number of employees	209 (worldwide, 2018)
Parent	PayPal
Website	joinhoney.com

PayPal Honey, formerly known as Honey, is an American technology company and a subsidiary of PayPal known for developing a browser extension that aggregates and automatically applies online coupons on eCommerce websites.

History

Entrepreneurs Ryan Hudson and George Ruan founded Honey in November 2012 in Los Angeles, California, after building a prototype of the browser extension in late October 2012. A bug tester leaked the tool to Reddit, where it went viral. By March 2014, the company had 900,000 organic users.

Honey raised a $26 million Series C round, led by Anthos Capital in March 2017. By January 2018, Honey raised a total of $40.8 million in venture backing.

On January 6, 2020, it was acquired by PayPal for about $4 billion. Nearly immediately after PayPal acquired Honey, Amazon claimed to its users that the extension was a security risk that sold personal information. A Wired magazine article, written shortly after the acquisition, questioned whether the claim was motivated by PayPal's newly acquired ability to compete against Amazon.

In June 2022, the company was renamed PayPal Honey.

In 2024, a YouTuber named Megalag reported that PayPal Honey gives partnered vendors control over which discount codes are displayed. Additionally, he claimed that the extension reattributes sales made through affiliate marketing programs by changing referral links, crediting Honey with the sale instead of the influencer whose link the user originally clicked.

Marketing

PayPal Honey has become known for its heavy use of YouTube advertising and channel sponsorships for its marketing. Similarly to NordVPN, Amazon's Audible and Raid: Shadow Legends, it offers paid sponsorships to popular YouTube channels to advertise the service to its viewers.

In 2019, the company became a shirt sponsor of the NBA team, Los Angeles Clippers.

Revenue

PayPal Honey's revenue comes from a commission made on user transactions with partner retailers. When a member makes a purchase from merchants partnering with the company, Honey shares part of their commission with the member in a cashback program. Users are notified of price drops and price history on selected items sold by participating online stores.

See also

• Shopkick

References

1. ^ Metcalf, Tom; Verhage, Julie (January 28, 2020). "Coupon Duo Now Worth $1.5 Billion After Honey's Sale to PayPal". BloombergQuint. Archived from the original on December 9, 2020. Retrieved January 28, 2020.
2. "Honey Science". EquityNet. Retrieved December 23, 2024.
3. Vincent, Roger (August 1, 2018). "Online coupon firm Honey taking over historic Coca-Cola plant in Arts District". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 3, 2019.
4. Shontell, Alyson (January 16, 2013). "New Coupon Startup 'Honey' Has Had 9 Successful Investor Meetings in a Row". Business Insider. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
5. Perez, Sarah (March 25, 2014). "Honey Introduces a Universal Cart for Online Shoppers Where Savings Are Automatically Applied". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
6. Pierson, David (October 24, 2017). "L.A. Tech: Can't find a coupon code? This L.A. start-up does all the work for you". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
7. Ketchum, Dan (April 11, 2019). "Got a Problem? Turn it into a Business Like These 15 Companies". GOBankingRates. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
8. "PayPal Completes Acquisition of Honey" (Press release). PR Newswire. January 6, 2020. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
9. Taulli, Tom (November 23, 2019). "Why PayPal Paid $4 Billion for Honey Science". Forbes. Retrieved January 28, 2020.
10. Peters, Jay (November 20, 2019). "PayPal acquires the company behind the Honey deal-finding extension for $4 billion". The Verge. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
11. Lee, Dami (January 9, 2020). "Amazon suspiciously says browser extension Honey is a security risk, now that PayPal owns it". The Verge. Retrieved February 8, 2022.
12. "What is PayPal Honey?". PayPal Honey. June 29, 2022. Archived from the original on September 26, 2022. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
13. Guyoncourt, Sally (December 23, 2024). "Is the Honey browser extension legit? What is the controversy?". The i Paper. Retrieved December 23, 2024.
14. Weiss, Geoff (November 21, 2019). "Browser Extension 'Honey', a Frequent Shane Dawson and MrBeast Sponsor, Acquired for $4 Billion". Tubefilter. Retrieved June 11, 2020.
15. "What is 'Honey' on the Clippers' uniforms? Explaining LA's jersey sponsorship patch". www.sportingnews.com. April 18, 2023. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
16. Rey, Jason Del (April 2, 2018). "Honey — the under-the-radar coupon startup — has held talks to raise around $100 million in a new investment". Recode. Retrieved January 13, 2024.
17. Kane, Libby (November 17, 2017). "A struggling dad built an app to buy his kids cheaper pizza — and now his company has 5 million downloads and $40 million". Business Insider. Retrieved January 3, 2019.
18. Ellingson, Annlee (January 31, 2018). "How Honey helps users keep their New Year's resolution to save money". American City Business Journals. Retrieved September 26, 2022.

• PayPal
• American companies established in 2012
• Internet properties established in 2012
• Technology companies based in Greater Los Angeles
• Companies based in Los Angeles
• Internet Explorer add-ons
• Nonfree Firefox WebExtensions
• Google Chrome extensions
• Reward, cashback and comparison-shopping digital platforms
• 2020 mergers and acquisitions