Founded in 2012 by Ryan Hudson and George Ruan in Los Angeles, California, the company was acquired by PayPal in 2020 for approximately $4 billion.

[5] Entrepreneurs Ryan Hudson and George Ruan founded Honey in November 2012 in Los Angeles, California, after building a prototype of the browser extension in late October 2012.

A Wired magazine article, written shortly after the acquisition, questioned whether the claim was motivated by PayPal's newly acquired ability to compete against Amazon.

Similarly to NordVPN, Amazon's Audible, and Raid: Shadow Legends, it offers paid sponsorships to popular YouTube channels to advertise the service to their viewers.

"[18] Ray Fernandez of Techopedia stated that Honey's interfering with the checkout process and "deliberately [removing] all traces of the original links that led users to a product and [replacing] them with its own affiliate ID" is not an industry standard.

On December 29, 2024, a class action lawsuit against PayPal was filed in United States federal court by three law firms, including one owned by YouTuber LegalEagle, over the affiliate marketing controversy.

[25][26][27] The controversy gained further traction when another class action lawsuit was filed on January 3, 2025, by the technology review outlet GamersNexus[28] through law firm Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP, claiming conversion, interference with contract relations, and violation of North Carolina's Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act.