In the previous few weeks, PayPal-owned Honey, which claims to seek out you one of the best coupon codes for a deal, has been on the middle of controversy. Allegedly, the software sneakily earned affiliate cash by altering attributes of product hyperlinks creators posted on their movies. At the middle of it, the issue was how affiliate hyperlinks work and the way the cash goes to whoever has the final hyperlink when the person makes the acquisition.
Former Vercel worker Steven Tey thinks his open-source URL shortener and link-tracking service Dub.co can clear up this drawback by eradicating the necessity to use coupon codes and embedding them within the hyperlink.
The firm is constructing an attribution and affiliate product that creators can use to create their very own hyperlinks. And customers will solely get a reduction in the event that they use that particular hyperlink.
“We need to make attribution rather more clear to creators in addition to companies to keep away from conditions just like the Honey scandal, the place anybody can steal the attribution,” Tey mentioned on a name with TechCrunch.
Tey began Dub.co whereas working at Vercel as an open-source URL shortener. He added hyperlink monitoring alongside the best way. He constructed this undertaking to higher perceive merchandise Vercel was transport. Over time, Dub.co turned a full-fledged Software as a Service service. Tey left Vercel in late in 2023 and began the corporate across the similar time.
“There was a giant drawback with attribution monitoring to know the place our income was coming from. At Vercel, at the moment, we didn’t understand how our developer advocacy work like creating articles and tutorials translating into income. So this planted the seeds for Dub,” Tey mentioned.
He added that after launching Dub.co, he realized that the affiliate house was antiquated and messy with not many instruments for personalization. That is when he understood that there’s extra to hyperlink monitoring house than simply URL shortening providers.
While the corporate’s main income supply is companies and enterprises, it additionally gives a free plan for individuals to shorten their hyperlinks and monitor them. Notably, the startup is working with Malaysian authorities to make the most of the open-source facet of the undertaking to construct out a hyperlink shortener and tracker for authorities. Plus, corporations like Twilio use the Software as a Service hosted model of Dub.co and customise it in keeping with their wants to trace their hyperlinks, campaigns, and occasions. What’s extra, YouTube channels like Huberman Labs is utilizing Dub’s answer to trace associates.
Dub.co launched a brand new product known as Conversions this week, which might monitor real-time advertising clicks changing to signups or gross sales. The startup mentioned this may assist corporations monitor granular metrics like buyer acquisition prices, retention charges, and lifelong worth to higher perceive advertising returns. Dub.co can even combine with instruments like Shopify and Stripe to higher monitor conversions.
Tey famous that whereas Dub.co gives AI options, it doesn’t need them to take over core merchandise. Currently, customers can use AI to create customized experiences or get strategies for title and outline for various hyperlinks. The startup can be utilizing AI for auto-tagging hyperlink to present classes.
Joseph Jacks, founding father of OSS Capital, mentioned that the Dub.co has a bonus over competitors with its open-source nature, higher person expertise and design.
The firm has raised $2 million from traders together with OSS Capital; Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch; Balaji Srinivasan; design service Framer’s founders Jorn van Dijk and Koen Bok; former Facebook designer Soleio, who has been an early backer of Vercel, Perplexity, and Figma; and Cal.com CEO Peer Richardson.
“Links are the muse of the net — pair that with attribution and the addressable market is huge, tens of billions minimal,” Jacks advised TechCrunch over e-mail.
“By turning quick hyperlinks into attribution engines, Dub can assist entrepreneurs reply the age-old query of ‘What’s my ROI on my advertising spend?’ — backed by real-world conversion knowledge.”
