Rakuten Rewards

Rakuten Rewards (/ˈrækətɪn/ RAK-ə-tin),^[1] formerly known as Ebates,^[2] is a cash-back and shopping rewards company.^[3] Its revenue comes from affiliate network links.^[4] Members of the site click through affiliate links before shopping at a retailer's site.

Rakuten Rewards

Industry	Cashback website
Founded	3 May 1998 (1998-05-03) in Menlo Park, California, United States
Founders	Alessandro Isolani and Paul Wasserman
Headquarters	San Mateo, California
Area served	United States, Canada, China, South Korea, Singapore, Japan
Key people	Amit Patel (CEO)
Number of employees	760 (worldwide, 2019)
Parent	Rakuten
Website	www.rakuten.com

History

Rakuten Rewards was founded as Ebates in 1998 in Menlo Park, California, by two former deputy district attorneys, Alessandro Isolani and Paul Wasserman.^[5] Funded by the venture capital firm Foundation Capital,^[6] Ebates.com was launched on 3 May 1999, offering up to 25% cash back from about 40 online retailers.^[7]

In September 2014, Ebates was acquired by the Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten for US$1 billion.^[8] In 2019, the Ebates brand was phased out and replaced with Rakuten Rewards.^[9]

Acquisitions

Date	Company	Business	Country	References
8 September 2011	FatWallet	Comparison shopping site	United States	[10]
9 August 2012	BFAds	Coupons site	United States	[11]
8 September 2012	AnyCoupons	Coupons site	United States	[citation needed]
22 June 2012	OneReceipt	Receipt digitization service	United States	[12]
10/12/2012	PushPins	Coupons mobile site	United States	[13]
25 June 2013 sold 6 December 2017	Extrabux	Comparison shopping site	United States	[14]
7 March 2016	Shopular	Product discovery mobile app	United States	[15]
23 January 2017	Cartera Commerce	Rewards program provider	United States	[16]
3 April 2017	ShopStyle (and Cosmic Cart)	Fashion discovery site	United States	[17]

Services/tools

Name	Description	References
Mobile app	Free application for Android and iOS allows users to shop and earn cash back on mobile devices.	[18]
Hotels	Users can book hotels to earn cash back.	[19]
Cash Back Button	Browser extension for Google Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari, Alerts users to cash-back possibilities on store sites and highlights offers in Google and Bing search results.	[20]
Marketplace	Formerly located at Rakuten.com, the marketplace is an e-commerce site where users can buy goods from third-party sellers.
In-Store Cash Back	Users can earn cash back in stores by adding a credit or debit card to their accounts and using that card to pay in stores.

Logos

• 
  2017
• 
  2018
• 
  2019 (US, before renaming)
• 
  2019 (Canada, before renaming)
• 
  2019 (US and Canada, after renaming)

References

1. "Ebates is now Rakuten". Rakuten Rewards.
2. "Ebates is Becoming Rakuten & Super Bowl Ad (How to Pronounce Rakuten)". Travel with Grant. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
3. Suknanan, Jasmin. "The Rakuten shopping portal gives you cash back for purchases you were already planning to make". CNBC. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
4. "Rakuten to Acquire Ebates for $1 Billion". Business Wire (Press release). 9 September 2014. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
5. Capital, Foundation (11 September 2014). "Remembering a Scrappy Little Startup Called Ebates". Foundation Capital. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
6. Kemp, Ted (17 May 1999). "ebates.com Pays Cash to Net Shoppers, Hopes to Lure Advertisers". Direct Marketing News. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
7. "Ebates.com launches discount rebate site". Advertising Age. Crain Communications Inc. 3 May 1999. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
8. Perez, Sarah (9 September 2014). "Rakuten Buys Ebates For $1 Billion". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
9. "Rakuten Review: Rakuten vs. Ebates - What is Changing". Dyer News. 8 March 2019. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
10. "Backed By VCs, Ebates Buys FatWallet.com And AnyCoupons.com, Starts New Company". TechCrunch. 9 September 2011. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
11. "Ebates acquires BFAds". StartupRanking. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
12. "Performance Marketing Brands Announces Acquisition of OneReceipt". Businesswire. 6 September 2012. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
13. "Performance Marketing Brands Expands Into Grocery Retail Market with Acquisition of Pushpins". Businesswire. 22 January 2013. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
14. "Ebates Inc. Acquires Extrabux®". Businesswire. 17 March 2014. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
15. "Ebates Acquires Shopular". Businesswire. 24 March 2016. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
16. "Ebates Acquires Cartera Commerce". Businesswire. 27 January 2017. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
17. "Ebates Acquires ShopStyle From PopSugar Inc". Businesswire. 24 February 2017. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
18. "Rakuten Review: Rakuten vs. Ebates - What is Changing". Dyer News. 8 March 2019. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
19. "Ebates Hotels Review: Earn 10% Cash Back". Hustler Money Blog. 22 August 2018. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
20. "Rakuten Review: Rakuten vs. Ebates - What is Changing". Dyer News. 8 March 2019. Retrieved 25 April 2019.