LinusTechTips mentioned MegaLag’s Honey exposé at size on the WAN present, his weekly dwell broadcast, and pushed again on the concept he hid why LTT reduce ties with the corporate.
MegaLag’s video claims that Honey purposely altered affiliate hyperlinks and curated offers they made behind closed doorways with enterprise companions, in impact taking cash out of creators’ pockets and lining their very own whereas giving the top consumer a worse deal on the similar time.
These allegations have but to be addressed by Honey, and it’s price noting the corporate hasn’t been investigated by the authorities on the time of writing. At the moment, these are simply accusations from MegaLag. Or, at the least partially from him.
In response to Linus, the corporate allegedly swapping out affiliate hyperlinks to their very own was one thing he and plenty of different creators knew on the time, and was the principle cause why LTT severed their partnership.
Although Linus recommended MegaLag’s analysis and applauded him for placing collectively a video on the subject, he vehemently pushed again in opposition to the notion that he was purposely hiding this data from the general public.
LinusTechTips tells his aspect of the Honey story
Linus’ protection started with him stating and exhibiting that there have been some movies launched years in the past claiming Honey was a rip-off, and that the thought he was the one one who knew is fake.
“MegaLag did attain out to us for remark, and my normal place on it was, ‘Yeah, we dropped these guys three years in the past, this all got here out – all of the affiliate ripping stuff, every part we learn about – got here out years in the past. Very to see the video and all the opposite stuff, I don’t actually know what precisely it has to do with us.’ I’m a bit of confused nonetheless at what it has to do with us.”
Linus defined that he arrange a name with Honey’s staff, claiming that he ended his sponsorship with the corporate after they, by his account, refused to cease ripping affiliate codes.
“If we’d recognized about any of the extra end-user centric points mentioned in MegaLag’s video, reminiscent of purposely not giving customers one of the best deal doable due to behind-the-scenes partnerships with firms, we very in all probability would have raised extra alarm bells,” Linus defined.
“Now we have no cause at the moment to consider Honey was something apart from what it claimed to be, which was a coupon discovering service that took an affiliate reduce.”
He adopted this by pushing again on the characterization that he knew and purposely didn’t inform anybody, with co-host Luke elaborating by saying they have been publicly tipped off on the subject of Honey’s practices and selected to behave on it.
“I don’t know what individuals are anticipating us to say about it apart from, yeah, we heard about it within the information, similar as apparently everybody else given what number of people stopped working with them within the 2020-2021 timeframe, so… yeah.”
One in all Linus’ chatters argued that Linus was the largest creator backing Honey, to which Linus fired again that MrBeast’s 300 million subscriber channel additionally labored with Honey up to now and known as that chatter a “f**king fool”. Linus additionally stated that he doesn’t perceive why the emphasis was positioned so closely on them as a substitute of different creators.
“This example’s weird, dude. I’m a sufferer right here. I don’t know if individuals seen that. As a creator for whom affiliate income from Amazon was, in 2020, 7% of our enterprise staff’s income, like… This had a big affect on our enterprise,” Linus claimed.
“Completely it will have impacted different creators, too. And they’re victims on this. But it surely doesn’t change that anybody who relied on affiliate income and had it skimmed by Honey was victimized by Honey.”
Co-host Luke remarked that the Honey scandal “wasn’t their story to interrupt,” taking into account that LTT didn’t learn about the way it affected customers, solely them.
MegaLag has but to answer Linus’ push again on the best way he was portrayed within the video.
This drama follows LinusTechTips getting known as out by YouTuber Gamer’s Nexus in 2023, one thing that sparked large change within the firm together with an inside investigation and Linus himself stepping down as CEO to try to enhance operations inside LTT.
