 | |
| Type | Cashback website Online coupons |
|---|---|
| Founded | Monroe, Wisconsin, United States (1999) |
| Defunct | 2017 |
| Revenue | 12.3 million (2009) [1] |
| Owner | Performance Marketing Brands |
| Website | www |
FatWallet was a comparison shopping website, centering on a set of forums that allowed users to publish deals and rebate offers on products and services, with computer-related products and electronics most prominent in the listings. It was headquartered in Beloit, Wisconsin, and ceased operation on October 9, 2017.
FatWallet featured a "Coupons" section where users could find discounts from online retailers.
Before being acquired, FatWallet also featured its own "Cash Back" rebate shopping section, in which members received back a percentage of purchases made through referral links to partnered retailers. FatWallet has since ended the cash back program and now directs its members to the program offered by Rakuten.
FatWallet users posted the sale prices of major retailers, often before they were officially released in retailers' advertisements, which involved the site in a legal dispute in 2002 involving Black Friday advertisements. Several retailers, including Walmart, Target, Best Buy and Staples, have served FatWallet with "take-down" notices pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, claiming that their sale prices were copyrighted and must be removed from the FatWallet site. In addition, Wal-Mart served FatWallet with a subpoena to reveal the identity of the users who had posted Wal-Mart's prices, but the demand was later dropped. [2] [3]
Although FatWallet initially complied with the take-down notices due to the fear of liability, within two weeks it reposted the prices and argued that the prices were facts rather than expression, and therefore not subject to copyright. FatWallet filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against three of the retailers, seeking damages for knowing assertion of invalid copyright claims and a declaratory judgment that the take-down provisions of the DMCA were unconstitutional. The case, FatWallet, Inc. v. Best Buy Enterprise Services, Inc., was dismissed. The court ruled that FatWallet lacked standing to sue for any harm done to its users for having their postings temporarily removed, and FatWallet did not assert any injury to itself that the court found cognizable. [3]
Since its launch, FatWallet has expanded its forums to include discussion on other financial topics such as investments, banking and credit cards. The Finance forum has been mentioned in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times referencing personal finance topics including on credit cards and 401K investment tips.[ citation needed ]
FatWallet launched "Best Deals" in 2009 (initially called "Today's Top Deals"), which features researched deals found on the internet by staff and members. Best Deals also features an "Expert Picks" section where staff research bigger ticket retail products like laptops, computers and HDTVs for the best value for the price, and post their endorsements each week.
Between March and April 2011, FatWallet moved to Beloit, Wisconsin, from Rockton, Illinois, in order to avoid termination of affiliate contracts with online retailers such as Amazon.com, which provide about 30% of the company's revenue. An Illinois law passed in March 2011 in anticipation of passage of the U.S. Main Street Fairness Act, required online retailers with Illinois affiliates to collect and remit sales taxes to the state. [4]
FatWallet was sold to Ebates (now Rakuten Rewards) in 2011, at the same time as AnyCoupons, and later merged with Ebates to form a new company called Performance Marketing Brands. Former owner and founder Tim Storm stayed on as a strategic adviser for the new company. [5] [6]
FatWallet's parent company, Ebates (now Rakuten Rewards) was sold to Rakuten, as announced September 9, 2014. FatWallet was wholly sold during the transaction. [7] [8]
On September 20, 2017, Tim Storm posted on his Facebook page the following:
I heard the news today... oh boy.
When I sold FatWallet in 2011, I told myself that I sold the right to complain about whatever happened after that.
I'm immensely proud of what we built—and sad to hear that it will be shutting down very very soon.
I've not been involved at all in the last 6 years, but my heart is with everyone that played a part, either with me, or after me.
It was a hell of a ride. [9]
Shortly thereafter, a FatWallet employee confirmed that FatWallet's owner, Rakuten, would be shutting down the website, but was unable to provide further details. [10]
On September 22, 2017, FatWallet General Manager Ryan Washatka officially confirmed the site would be shutting down, although the timeline was yet to be determined. [11]
On October 9, 2017, at approximately 4:00 p.m. EST, the site went offline and began redirecting to Ebates.com.
FatWallet was twice named one of the "50 Best Places To Work in America" by the Best Places To Work Institute and Entrepreneur magazine. It was ranked at #20 on the list for best small businesses in 2010, [12] and #13 in 2011. [13] Founder Tim Storm was also named as one of four finalists for Entrepreneur of 2010 by Entrepreneur.com. [14]
Napster was a peer-to-peer file sharing application. It originally launched on June 1, 1999, with an emphasis on digital audio file distribution. Audio songs shared on the service were typically encoded in the MP3 format. It was founded by Shawn Fanning, Sean Parker, and Hugo Sáez Contreras. As the software became popular, the company ran into legal difficulties over copyright infringement. It ceased operations in 2001 after losing a wave of lawsuits and filed for bankruptcy in June 2002.
Sales promotion is one of the elements of the promotional mix. The primary elements in the promotional mix are advertising, personal selling, direct marketing and publicity/public relations. Sales promotion uses both media and non-media marketing communications for a pre-determined, limited time to increase consumer demand, stimulate market demand or improve product availability. Examples include contests, coupons, freebies, loss leaders, point of purchase displays, premiums, prizes, product samples, and rebates.
In marketing, a coupon is a ticket or document that can be redeemed for a financial discount or rebate when purchasing a product.
Rakuten Group, Inc. is a Japanese technology conglomerate based in Tokyo, founded by Hiroshi Mikitani in 1997. Centered around Rakuten Ichiba, its businesses include financial services utilizing financial technology, as well as digital content and communications services such as the messaging app Viber, e-book distributor Kobo, and Japan's fourth mobile carrier Rakuten Mobile. Rakuten has more than 28,000 employees worldwide, operating in 29 countries and regions, and its revenues totaled US $7.2 billion with operating profits of about US$347.9 million as of 2016. Rakuten was the official sponsor of the Spanish football club FC Barcelona from 2017 until 2021, and the Golden State Warriors of the NBA, as of 2022. It is often referred to as the "Amazon of Japan".
Amazon China, formerly known as Joyo.com, is an online shopping website. Joyo.com was founded in early 2000 by the Chinese entrepreneur Lei Jun in Beijing, China. The company primarily sold books and other media goods, shipping to customers nationwide. Joyo.com was renamed to “Amazon China” when sold to Amazon Inc in 2004 for US$75 Million. Amazon China closed its domestic business in China in June 2019, offering only products from sellers located overseas.
A rebate is a form of buying discount and is an amount paid by way of reduction, return, or refund that is paid retrospectively. It is a type of sales promotion that marketers use primarily as incentives or supplements to product sales. Rebates are also used as a means of enticing price-sensitive consumers into purchasing a product. The mail-in rebate (MIR) is the most common. A MIR entitles the buyer to mail in a coupon, receipt, and barcode in order to receive a check for a particular amount, depending on the particular product, time, and often place of purchase. Rebates are offered by either the retailer or the product manufacturer. Large stores often work in conjunction with manufacturers, usually requiring two or sometimes three separate rebates for each item, and sometimes are valid only at a single store. Rebate forms and special receipts are sometimes printed by the cash register at time of purchase on a separate receipt or available online for download. In some cases, the rebate may be available immediately, in which case it is referred to as an instant rebate. Some rebate programs offer several payout options to consumers, including a paper check, a prepaid card that can be spent immediately without a trip to the bank, or even as a PayPal payout.
Pandora is a subscription-based music streaming service owned by Sirius XM Holdings based in Oakland, California, United States. The service carries a focus on recommendations based on the "Music Genome Project" — a means of classifying individual songs by musical traits. The service originally launched in the consumer market as an internet radio service, which would generate personalized channels based on these traits and songs liked by the user; this service is available in an advertising-supported tier, and a subscription-based version. In 2017, the service launched Pandora Premium, an on-demand version of the service more in line with contemporary competitors.
Group buying, also known as collective buying, offers products and services at significantly reduced prices on the condition that a minimum number of buyers would make the purchase. Origins of group buying can be traced to China, where it is known as Tuán Gòu, or team buying.
A cashback website is a type of reward website that pays its members a percentage of money earned when they purchase goods and services via its affiliate links.
Rakuten.com/shop was an e-commerce marketplace based in San Mateo, California. Previously known as Buy.com, it was founded in 1997 by Scott Blum. In 2010, it was purchased by Japanese company Rakuten, and rebranded as Rakuten.com. This business was shut down by Rakuten in 2020.
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Coupon Mountain was an e-commerce website operated based in Monrovia, California that displayed syndicated online deals. Founded in 2001 by Harry Tsao and Talmadge O'Neill, Coupon Mountain began as one of the two original website properties for MeziMedia, which was acquired by ValueClick for up to $352 million. MeziMedia was renamed to ValueClick Brands in 2010. In November 2013, ValueClick sold several of its online properties to IAC which, in addition to Coupon Mountain, included price-comparison website PriceRunner and investment education site Investopedia for $80 million. Coupon Mountain, along with PriceRunner, were being actively shopped in 2016 after slumping sales attributed to a change in Google's search algorithm but only PriceRunner was sold in March 2016 to Swedish firm NS Intressenter for around $100 million. That got fully acquired by Klarna in 2022.
In business and marketing, “trade” refers to the relationship between manufacturers and retailers. Trade Promotion refers to marketing activities that are executed in retail between these two partners. Trade Promotion is a marketing technique aimed at increasing demand for products in retail stores based on special pricing, display fixtures, demonstrations, value-added bonuses, no-obligation gifts, and more.
Google Offers was a service offering discounts and coupons. Initially, it was a deal of the day website similar to Groupon, but it later changed focus. Rather than a small number of prepaid offers, it instead offered many smaller discounts. It additionally integrated with both Google Maps and Google Wallet for mobile offers. In 2014, Google announced it would be shutting the service down.
Shopkick is an American company based in Denver that created a shopping app for smartphones and tablets offering users’ rewards for shopping activities on both online and offline platforms such as walking into stores, scanning items, making in-app or in-store purchases and submitting receipts. Users are awarded "kicks" for these actions, and can exchange them for rewards in the form of mobile gift cards. The app is currently available for iOS and Android devices.
CouponCabin provides online coupon codes from American retailers, including Target, Sears, 1-800-Flowers, and Home Depot. The site also provides printable coupons for local businesses and groceries, daily deal aggregation and product recommendations.
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.
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