Posted 7th Dec 2022
We wanted to share some news with you - our parent company Pepper, which runs deal communities (including hotukdeals) in 12 different countries, is joining forces with a company called Global Savings Group, with the merger planned to complete at the end of this year. We believe this will allow us to help more people to save money, in new and exciting ways.
Who are Global Savings Group?
Global Savings Group (GSG) is a leading provider of cashback websites and vouchers across Europe. They started up a decade ago, and now run some of the largest cashback websites in Europe - including iGraal and Shoop (France and Germany’s version of Topcashback/Quidco) - as well as providing the vouchers that are fed onto websites like Metro, MailOnline, CNN and more.
If you’ve Googled and ended up on a newspaper or other publisher website and unexpectedly seen vouchers there, they could well have been provided by GSG.
Why?
The paths of the two companies have crossed many times over the years as our missions are very similar - to help people save money when shopping. Whereas we bring together communities of experts to help each other make shopping decisions, GSG is great at negotiating vouchers and cashback that make deals even stronger. So our founders and GSG’s decided to merge in order to combine the expertise and resources to create a stronger and more comprehensive platform for users.
You can read a full account from Fabian, the founder of Mydealz and CEO of Pepper, over here on Mydealz (right click in Google Chrome and it will offer to translate to English for you)
Is Pepper being bought?
No, this is a merger where both companies are coming together to form a new joint organization. The shareholders of Pepper are not selling their stakes and the founders who still work at Pepper will not be leaving. Additionally, Pepper (and hotukdeals) remains autonomous and independent following the merger and Fabian - our current CEO - will be Managing Director of that part of GSG.
What changes will I see on hotukdeals/Pepper/etc?
The communities at Pepper are better and bigger than anything else in the shopping or deals category - that’s a big reason why GSG were interested in merging. While they operate successful cashback and voucher sites, they do not currently have popular communities. So they will be looking to benefit from our expertise, not change our direction. So our goal is to enhance what we already have and make it better - not fundamentally change it.
Specific projects and ideas are yet to be decided - the merger has not even completed yet (it should do by the end of this year). We would expect there to be benefits to our community though from the fact GSG is a leader in vouchers and cashback, something our users already make great use of.
How will this impact community policies and rules?
It won’t. The corporate change happens on a holding level and not on the operational level. Changes that happen in the community are changes we believe will help us achieve our mission of being the best place to come to exchange information with other experts and make great shopping decisions.
In fact one of the things that makes the merger attractive for GSG is that, while they operate successful cashback and voucher sites, they do not currently have popular communities. So they will be looking to benefit from our expertise, not change our direction.
Is this just about making more money?
Pepper and GSG are already profitable companies, because both of us meet the needs of millions of people across many countries - helping people make good shopping decisions and make purchases as cheaply and smartly as possible.
But we approach things differently - our communities are the lifeblood of Pepper and will remain this way. However, vouchers are not our expertise even though they are a fantastic way to save money.
For instance, despite much effort and investment in improving our position in Google search results, we frequently rank lower than other websites with worse vouchers and less traffic. So areas like this are where we hope to improve. Of course, if successful then this will result in more people using our vouchers, saving more money and also us making more money. The core factor driving us though is the ability to help more people in bigger and better ways
If by “making more money” you think of the founders of the business cashing in and “exiting” the business, the answer is also no. All active founders of the respective communities stay on board and roll over the vast majority of their shareholding into the new group and stay involved in their current roles. Fabian will also join the management team of GSG, while staying CEO of Pepper.
Will deals/vouchers get worse?
No. The founding mission of Pepper is to help users cut through marketing rubbish and find the best deals, tips, bargains, vouchers - we believe it’s what sets us apart from potential competitors. We already reviewed our publication rules earlier this year to bring them more up to date, and the principles we use will remain the same. We are open to flexibility and broadening some of our rules but always with the focus of helping users share deals that the majority would agree are helpful and the best available.
By working with GSG, we hope it enables us to negotiate bigger and better deals with retailers - we’re at the beginning of the journey, but watch this space
Will cashback be allowed?
Cashback is part of GSG’s bread and butter, and working with them to find a solution that fits our communities makes total sense. We haven’t got anywhere near discussing the details yet, so we don’t know all the problems or what the solutions to those would be. Also, they only offer Cashback in Germany and France at the moment so that will be an obstacle to overcome. So tentatively this is something you can expect to see more on, but we don’t know exactly how or when yet.
So there's still a lot of open questions about what will happen and when - this is the start of a process rather than the end, but we wanted to keep you all informed. Pop any questions below and we'll do our best to answer them
Who are Global Savings Group?
Global Savings Group (GSG) is a leading provider of cashback websites and vouchers across Europe. They started up a decade ago, and now run some of the largest cashback websites in Europe - including iGraal and Shoop (France and Germany’s version of Topcashback/Quidco) - as well as providing the vouchers that are fed onto websites like Metro, MailOnline, CNN and more.
If you’ve Googled and ended up on a newspaper or other publisher website and unexpectedly seen vouchers there, they could well have been provided by GSG.
Why?
The paths of the two companies have crossed many times over the years as our missions are very similar - to help people save money when shopping. Whereas we bring together communities of experts to help each other make shopping decisions, GSG is great at negotiating vouchers and cashback that make deals even stronger. So our founders and GSG’s decided to merge in order to combine the expertise and resources to create a stronger and more comprehensive platform for users.
You can read a full account from Fabian, the founder of Mydealz and CEO of Pepper, over here on Mydealz (right click in Google Chrome and it will offer to translate to English for you)
Is Pepper being bought?
No, this is a merger where both companies are coming together to form a new joint organization. The shareholders of Pepper are not selling their stakes and the founders who still work at Pepper will not be leaving. Additionally, Pepper (and hotukdeals) remains autonomous and independent following the merger and Fabian - our current CEO - will be Managing Director of that part of GSG.
What changes will I see on hotukdeals/Pepper/etc?
The communities at Pepper are better and bigger than anything else in the shopping or deals category - that’s a big reason why GSG were interested in merging. While they operate successful cashback and voucher sites, they do not currently have popular communities. So they will be looking to benefit from our expertise, not change our direction. So our goal is to enhance what we already have and make it better - not fundamentally change it.
Specific projects and ideas are yet to be decided - the merger has not even completed yet (it should do by the end of this year). We would expect there to be benefits to our community though from the fact GSG is a leader in vouchers and cashback, something our users already make great use of.
How will this impact community policies and rules?
It won’t. The corporate change happens on a holding level and not on the operational level. Changes that happen in the community are changes we believe will help us achieve our mission of being the best place to come to exchange information with other experts and make great shopping decisions.
In fact one of the things that makes the merger attractive for GSG is that, while they operate successful cashback and voucher sites, they do not currently have popular communities. So they will be looking to benefit from our expertise, not change our direction.
Is this just about making more money?
Pepper and GSG are already profitable companies, because both of us meet the needs of millions of people across many countries - helping people make good shopping decisions and make purchases as cheaply and smartly as possible.
But we approach things differently - our communities are the lifeblood of Pepper and will remain this way. However, vouchers are not our expertise even though they are a fantastic way to save money.
For instance, despite much effort and investment in improving our position in Google search results, we frequently rank lower than other websites with worse vouchers and less traffic. So areas like this are where we hope to improve. Of course, if successful then this will result in more people using our vouchers, saving more money and also us making more money. The core factor driving us though is the ability to help more people in bigger and better ways
If by “making more money” you think of the founders of the business cashing in and “exiting” the business, the answer is also no. All active founders of the respective communities stay on board and roll over the vast majority of their shareholding into the new group and stay involved in their current roles. Fabian will also join the management team of GSG, while staying CEO of Pepper.
Will deals/vouchers get worse?
No. The founding mission of Pepper is to help users cut through marketing rubbish and find the best deals, tips, bargains, vouchers - we believe it’s what sets us apart from potential competitors. We already reviewed our publication rules earlier this year to bring them more up to date, and the principles we use will remain the same. We are open to flexibility and broadening some of our rules but always with the focus of helping users share deals that the majority would agree are helpful and the best available.
By working with GSG, we hope it enables us to negotiate bigger and better deals with retailers - we’re at the beginning of the journey, but watch this space
Will cashback be allowed?
Cashback is part of GSG’s bread and butter, and working with them to find a solution that fits our communities makes total sense. We haven’t got anywhere near discussing the details yet, so we don’t know all the problems or what the solutions to those would be. Also, they only offer Cashback in Germany and France at the moment so that will be an obstacle to overcome. So tentatively this is something you can expect to see more on, but we don’t know exactly how or when yet.
So there's still a lot of open questions about what will happen and when - this is the start of a process rather than the end, but we wanted to keep you all informed. Pop any questions below and we'll do our best to answer them
Community Updates
40 Comments
sorted byWhat we allow to be posted as standalone deals is a cashback bonus which usually tracks after opting in and you can spend it across a number of sellers or products.
Just one of the many examples from Quidco here.
Here are examples of Topcashback.
So, a free voucher for every current HUKD member, right?
Will deals/vouchers get worse?
No. The founding mission of Pepper is to help users cut through marketing rubbish and find the best deals, tips, bargains, vouchers - we believe it’s what sets us apart from potential competitors
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No plans are firmed up yet about the crossover of content but I do think this can only be a positive outcome for consumers.
I already hate the fact we can no longer comment on vouchers posted on here (unless attached to a deal), loads don't work and there's no way to get feedback before you waste your time trying them, or to let others know. (edited)
So no ban amnesty then huh ?
Interesting to see how moving forward, what changes or ideas will be brought forward not just for Pepper, but the community in general also. (edited)
I agree though, there are still times where I play the ‘hunt the reply’ game