PayPal buys Honey discount platform for $ 4 billion

The payment company PayPal announced on Wednesday (20) the acquisition of the Honey platform, a popular online shopping discount service. Trading is about $ 4 billion - about $ 16.7 billion in direct currency conversion.

Honey's product helps you shop online and find the best prices. When you enter a product page, the service automatically searches for coupons and discount possibilities by applying the promotions to your virtual cart. The partnership involves more than 30,000 establishments and, before the acquisition, about 17 million monthly active users already used this feature. It can be installed as an extension in the browser or mobile app.

In addition to coupons, Honey promotes product discovery, price tracking and even a loyalty rewards program. PayPal's idea is to reinforce the portfolio at a stage that happens before its specialty, the payments system - that is, dealing with the moment of purchase. Competitors like Apple , Google and now even Facebook are slowly entering this territory, which forces the company to reinvent itself.

Thinking about the future

This is PayPal's largest acquisition, which now has to go through bureaucratic approval and regulatory procedures. The deal is expected to be finalized in the first quarter of 2020.

Honey co-founders George Ruan and Ryan Hudson will join PayPal in the product integration industry to help scale the technology. The full team, which is housed in a 350-person office in Los Angeles, also joins the giant.