Rakuten Rewards (), formerly known as Ebates, is a cash-back and shopping rewards company. Its revenue comes from affiliate network links. Members of the site click through affiliate links before shopping at a retailer's site. Once the member makes a purchase, Rakuten Rewards receives an affiliate commission from the retailer which is then shared with the member. The company publishes links both on its website and through a browser extension as well as a mobile app.

History

Rakuten Rewards was founded as Ebates in 1998 in

Menlo Park, California Menlo Park is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County within the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south ...

, by two former deputy district attorneys, Alessandro Isolani and Paul Wasserman. Funded by the

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to start-up company, startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth poten ...

firm Foundation Capital, Ebates.com was launched on 3 May 1999, offering up to 25% cash back from about 40 online retailers. In September 2014, Ebates was acquired by the Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten for US$1 billion. In 2019, the Ebates brand was phased out and replaced with Rakuten Rewards.

Acquisitions

Services/tools

Logos

File:Ebates Logo 2017.svg, 2017 File:Ebates Logo 2018.svg, 2018 File:Ebates Logo 2019.svg, 2019 (US, before renaming) File:Ebates.ca Logo 2019.svg, 2019 (Canada, before renaming) File:Rakuten Global Brand Logo.svg, 2019 (US and Canada, after renaming)

References

{{Rakuten American companies established in 1998 Internet properties established in 1998 1998 establishments in California Companies based in San Mateo, California Rakuten 2014 mergers and acquisitions American subsidiaries of foreign companies