Prodege, LLC () is an American

online marketing Online advertising, also known as online marketing, Internet advertising, digital advertising or web advertising, is a form of marketing and advertising that uses the Internet to promote products and services to audiences and platform users. ...

, consumer

polling Poll, polled, or polling may refer to: Forms of voting and counting * Poll, a formal election ** Election verification exit poll, a survey taken to verify election counts ** Polling, voting to make decisions or determine opinions ** Polling pla ...

, and

market research Market research is an organized effort to gather information about target markets and customers. It involves understanding who they are and what they need. It is an important component of business strategy and a major factor in maintaining com ...

company based in

El Segundo, California El Segundo ( , ; ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located on Santa Monica Bay, it was incorporated on January 18, 1917, and is part of the South Bay Cities Council of Governments. The population was 17,272 as of t ...

. The company develops consumer rewards and polling programs under various brands including Swagbucks, MyPoints, InboxDollars, CouponCause, Tada, Ysense, Upromise, and Pollfish.

History

Prodege was founded in

Torrance, California Torrance is a coastal city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area located in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city is part of what is known as the South Bay (Los Angeles County), South Bay region of the metropolitan ...

, in 2005 by entrepreneur Josef Gorowitz. The company originally partnered with search providers to build a platform for raising charitable donations. Supporters of the charities would earn money for the charities while surfing and shopping using white labeled web browsers. The company started offering the custom browsers to brands as a way to earn money from their fans' online activities. Early customers included the

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They ar ...

football team, and singer

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer and record producer. One of the most prominent figures in hip-hop, he is known for his varying musical style and polarizing cultural and political commentary. After ...

. In February 2008, Prodege launched the online rewards portal Swagbucks.com – under co-founders Josef Gorowitz and Scott Dudelson – and introduced Swag Bucks (SB) as a digital currency earned for activity throughout its network of websites. By shopping and playing online games, customers would earn SB, points which could be redeemed for gift cards and other merchandise. In January 2013, Prodege founder Josef Gorowitz appointed former

Shopzilla Connexity Inc. is a privately held Los Angeles operator of shopping web sites, including Shopzilla.com. Originally started as comparison shopping website Bizrate.com, the company changed its name to Shopzilla in 2004, and changed again to Conn ...

and

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CEO Chuck Davis as the company's executive chairman. In May 2014, Prodege announced that

Technology Crossover Ventures TCMI, Inc. better known by the name TCV (Technology Crossover Ventures) is an American investment firm based in Menlo Park, California. The firm mainly invests in public and private growth-stage companies in the technology industry. Background ...

(TCV) had invested $60 million into Prodege. Prodege also announced Executive Chairman Chuck Davis had been appointed as Prdege’s new CEO and Chairman, while Josef Gorowitz assumed the title of Founder and President. Chuck Davis was also mentioned as being a TCV Venture partner. In July 2014, Prodege announced its acquisition of SodaHead.com, an online polling technology platform founded by Jason Feffer. SodaHead.com CEO Chris Dominguez and Founder Jason Feffer joined Prodege's executive leadership team in the move. In April 2016, Prodege bought rewards site MyPoints from

United Online United Online, Inc. was an independent public company formed by the 2001 merger of NetZero and Juno Online Services. It is currently a subsidiary of investment bank B. Riley Financial. The company's range of products and services has evolved sig ...

, the company formed by the merger of online services companies

NetZero NetZero is an Internet service provider based in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California. It is a subsidiary of United Online, which in turn is a subsidiary of investment bank B. Riley Financial. United Online is also the parent of Juno Onli ...

and

Juno Online Services Juno Online Services, also called simply Juno, is an Internet service provider based in the United States. It originated as a free email service and later expanded its offerings. Juno is a subsidiary of United Online, which in turn is a subsidi ...

. In August 2017, the company acquired

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, Colorado–based cash-back shopping and coupon site ShopAtHome. In May 2019, the company bought Cotterweb Enterprises, a Minnesota-based operator of reward sites in the US, Canada, and the UK. In July, Prodege partnered with online local service deal company

Groupon Groupon, Inc. is an American global e-commerce marketplace connecting subscribers with local merchants by offering activities, travel, goods and services in 13 countries. Based in Chicago, Groupon was launched there in November 2008, launching ...

to develop a local merchant reward card program for customers. By 2020, Prodege’s products had over 120 million users, and as of 2019, had rewarded $725 million to its users since its inception. In February 2020, Prodege bought digital coupon company CouponCause. In May, Prodege bought Upromise, a loyalty program focused on saving for college, from student loan company

Sallie Mae SLM Corporation (commonly known as Sallie Mae; originally the Student Loan Marketing Association) is a publicly traded U.S. corporation that provides consumer banking. Its nature has changed dramatically since it was set up in the early 1970s; i ...

. Prodege partnered with Isometric Solutions and Panel Consulting to provide polling for the Prediction Survey, a political forecast developed by Thomas Miller during the 2020 Georgia Senate election. On May 24, 2021, ShopAtHome.com was relaunched as Tada.com. In February 2022, Prodege acquired Pollfish, a DIY market research platform. In July 2022, Prodege acquired AdGate Media, a digital advertising service company founded in 2011, originally based in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Services

Prodege offers online marketing services under several different consumer brands. *Swagbucks – a website and application where users shop and participate in other earning activities for cash rewards and gift cards. *MyPoints – an online rewards site. *InboxDollars – an online rewards site. Also known in the UK as InboxPounds. *CouponCause – a coupon site that donates the money users save to non-profits. *Upromise – a rewards program that helps members save for key milestones like education. *Tada – a site that provides rewards from grocery receipts. *Ysense – a gift card rewards program for customers that shop and take surveys. *Pollfish – a market research platform.

References

External links

Prodege Official Site
{{Customer loyalty programs Reward websites Customer loyalty programs 2005 establishments in California Companies based in El Segundo, California Marketing companies established in 2005 Market research companies of the United States Internet properties established in 2008