it's ok, we're learning // building @joinsimplify
sf
Joined August 2016
- Tweets688
- Following583
- Followers850
- Likes37.2K
This was inevitable for data companies, just as it was for frontier labs to bring data curation in-house.
Everyone wants control of their own destiny
Laguna S 2.1 is such a great model. It’s such a shame it’s nearly impossible to use given inference and capacity constraints
rushil retweeted
Non news. Literally all affiliate marketing app/plugins have done this, including industry darlings like Honey.
The entire thing is a joke but brands will keep paying it because it works.
Phia — the buzzy shopping app co-founded by Bill Gates' daughter, Phoebe — is claiming credit for online sales it didn’t actually drive, a Bloomberg investigation found. Read our exclusive story: bloom.bg/4wErGxe
📷️: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images
rushil retweeted
Actually far worse than the headline makes it sound:
- During checkout, Phia opened background tabs / registered fake clicks without user interaction & replaced legitimate referrer codes with its own.
- Result: hijacked affiliate commissions from real publishers & referrers via cookie-stuffing style tactics.
But guess what? EVERYONE does this.
This is an *open secret* in the world of discount shopping plugins.
They all earn affiliate revenue by “referring” users - even though they’re not *really* referring anyone. At its worst though, they do actual fraud.
Every major player in the coupon extensions space either does this or was already caught doing this.
@honey (owned by PayPal) was caught doing this.
@CapitalOne Shopping got caught doing something similar.
Phia is pretty much doing the SAME exact thing.
E-commerce brands and shoppers should both be outraged.
This forces brands to increase prices, and shoppers to make up for it, but this is not shocking news.
Phia — the buzzy shopping app co-founded by Bill Gates' daughter, Phoebe — is claiming credit for online sales it didn’t actually drive, a Bloomberg investigation found. Read our exclusive story: bloom.bg/4wErGxe
📷️: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images
Irony on this is insane. Your app practically does the same thing by scraping from other “demand” creators
.@Phiaco_ While this has your attention, it would be terrific if you would stop violating @rakuten's network terms and actually stand down your app when users come through other publisher's links (like @dupeapp) so we can stop reporting it. You're playing a dirty short term game that will prob get you banned fyi. I'm sure your cracked product and revenue teams can figure out how to make your monetization viable without dusting off Honey's blacklisted 2014 playbook in 2026.
Imagine building an app peddling coupons to make money in the age of A.I., with over $30M in the bank and a team of 50+ ppl. Just why?
