[3] Its revenue comes from affiliate network links.

Rakuten Rewards was founded as Ebates in 1998 in Menlo Park, California, by two former deputy district attorneys, Alessandro Isolani and Paul Wasserman.

[5] Funded by the venture capital firm Foundation Capital,[6] Ebates.com was launched on 3 May 1999, offering up to 25% cash back from about 40 online retailers.

[7] In September 2014, Ebates was acquired by the Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten for US$1 billion.

[8] In 2019, the Ebates brand was phased out and replaced with Rakuten Rewards.