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In lugnet.market.shopping, lar@voyager.net (Larry Pieniazek) writes:
> ebates.com is a new service which claims to give rebates on purchases,
> including a 25% rebate on etoys purchases. I joined. I have no idea if
> it works or not but I thought it was worth a shot. See www.ebates.com
> for details. [...]
WOW! Larry, this site is amazing! At first, I was skeptical, and even
after a couple hours I was still skeptical that they'd be able to stick
around for anything past a couple months even with advertising dollars.
But then, during a walk up to the corner store to get some milk (these quick
walks are always great moments for reflection :), it became clear how
*brilliant* their scheme is:
They (eBates) set themselves up as the affiliate with, say, Amazon or eToys.
I'm not sure exactly how referrals work with Amazon, but with eToys, the
first eToys affiliate to refer someone to eToys gets their ID stored in a
cookie on the user's machine (eToys makes the cookie-storage request). Now,
anything that user buys from eToys gives a kickback to the affiliate whose
ID is stored in the cookie.
Why this is brilliant for eBates: Having the eBates associate ID stored in
as many users' machines as possible is a big big big win for eBates --
because anyone who happens to blow through eBates and later buy something
from eToys causes a kickback to go to eBates, whether or not that user is
using eBates to benefit themselves. So in the long run, most of eBates's
income is likely to come via kickbacks from online stores that users didn't
claim via eBates. This could really be enormous for eBates. And it's why
they are able to pay recursive percentages back to people who sign up with
them and refer people.
It is absolutely brilliant, perfect, parasitic economics! Thanks for
finding this and posting about it! It seems like a win-win for everyone,
except the online merchants, who'll have to (sooner or later) figure out a
way to stop it when the competition really heats up in 3-5 years. Right
now, it's good for the merchants. In fact, wouldn't it be hilarious if a
daughter company of Amazon or eToys were to set up something like eBates and
recover much of the money they may otherwise lose -- or even to siphon it
away from their competition? :-)
What an eCrazy eWorld we eLive in today.
--Todd
[Crossposted to .market.theory, with followups set there]
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: 30% off sale on selected LEGO at eToys
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| (...) ebates.com is a new service which claims to give rebates on purchases, including a 25% rebate on etoys purchases. I joined. I have no idea if it works or not but I thought it was worth a shot. See www.ebates.com for details. if you give my (...) (25 years ago, 9-May-99, to lugnet.market.shopping)
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