PayPal Honey, formerly known as Honey, is an American technology company and subsidiary of

PayPal PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper ...

known for developing a browser extension that aggregates and automatically applies online

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on eCommerce websites.

History

Entrepreneurs Ryan Hudson and George Ruan founded Honey in November 2012 in Los Angeles, California, after building a

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...

of the browser extension in late October 2012. A bug tester leaked the tool to

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, where it went viral. By March 2014, the company had 900,000 organic users. Honey raised a $26 million

Series C round A venture round is a type of funding round used for venture capital financing, by which startup companies obtain investment, generally from venture capitalists and other institutional investors. The availability of venture funding is among the ...

, 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

for about $4 billion. Nearly immediately after PayPal acquired Honey,

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claimed to its users that the extension was a security risk that sold personal information. A

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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.

Marketing

PayPal Honey has become known for its heavy use of YouTube advertising and channel sponsorships for its marketing. Similarly to

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, Amazon's

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and Raid Shadow Legends, it offers paid sponsorships to popular YouTube channels such as

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to expose the service to its viewers. In 2020, PayPal Honey launched a web series called "Honey Originals", where Honey partners were interviewed, including segments "20 Questions with _" and "Add To Cart with _".

Revenue

PayPal Honey's revenue comes from a commission made on user transactions with partnering 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.

References

{{Reflist 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 websites 2020 mergers and acquisitions YouTube sponsors