Social media influencers have risen to the same level of popularity as big name Hollywood, sports and music industry celebrities. Their word is bond, to many of their fans. MrBeast (presently, the most viewed YouTube creator), Marques Brownlee (one of the largest technology influencers) and “lifestyle vlogger” Emma Chamberlain encouraged their followers to download and install the web browser software extension known as Honey.
The man behind the YouTube channel MegaLag released this video on December 21, 2024 that details his investigation into this company, which was purchased for $4 billion by PayPal back in January 2020.
One influencer that did not fall for the scam goes by the user name Markiplier. Right after PayPal’s acquisition, he called out Honey during a live video stream because he didn’t understand exactly how they generated revenue. His intuition had them questioning everything about the company. As it turns out, Markiplier’s statements aged like fine wine.
What did the scam ultimately expose? That it was stealing sales commissions from affiliate marketers (such as large social media influencers) any time it was used. Their business model skimmed by modifying referral codes without the users’ knowledge.
The above video goes into much more detail than I care to cover in this article, so I recommend watching it if you’re curious about digital marketing. Why this matters is, many creators build their businesses around sponsors and affiliate marketing. Similar to national TV networks’ commercials (use coupon code “CNN” at checkout to save 10% off your first order) and for a company to take billions from others is a very scummy and perhaps even an illegal move.
