“If anyone actually knows what Flip is, and how it works, and how they give hundreds of dollars of free products to everyone, please let me know,” says 21-year-old TikTok user Alexis Taliento. She then opens a package containing $74 worth of products from Sephora-grade beauty brands like Saie and Anastasia that cost her just $4 out of pocket. “I will gladly take the free makeup,” the New York City–based college student tells her 30,000 followers.
Taliento’s experience isn’t a one-off. Flip, a social video platform fixated on shopping has recently blazed a trail of confusion-tinged-delight across the internet. A referral program that rewards users with next-to-free merchandise has helped propel the platform into the top 25 most popular free US shopping apps on the iPhone, according to SensorTower—while sparking questions about the business model behind it.
Flip tries to channel the shopping culture of TikTok and Instagram into a space wholly dedicated to purchasing and reviewing products. Humans Inc, the startup behind Flip, has raised $95 million in funding according to investment analysts Pitchbook, and in October it launched a generous referral program awarding users up to $150 when they refer a friend to the platform who subsequently makes a purchase. The new user of the app gets a gift card of equal value, which can be used to cover 95 percent of the cost of any product on the app.
Beyond the referral program, the basic here-to-stay design of Flip also offers users monetary rewards. Users receive additional credit, including cash directly transferable to their bank accounts, if they review in-app purchases in the form of TikTok-style videos—whether or not they have good things to say about what they bought. Flip pays creators when their videos receive views and reactions, when other users buy a product via their review, and when they view and react to those of others.
Flip works directly with brands to approve their license to sell on Flip, and it lists notable labels including kitchenware maker Caraway, appliance brand Smeg, and hair-care giant Moroccanoil. Brands are barred from communicating directly with users, but they can pay the platform to promote particular reviews, generating ad revenue that Flip shares with the review’s creator.
To the internet-trained eye, messages containing $100 gift cards accompanied by bright green “Claim Now” buttons are undeniably suspicious. But the lure of subsidized purchases is helping to transform wary prospective users into avid, albeit sometimes confused, Flip shoppers.
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