Honey would look for coupom codes, and sometimes it would find them, it wasn’t always, but also wasn’t never, so yes, they were “saving money” for the user as far as people knew at the time. After MegaLag’s video we know that the whole “find all available and working coupons to guarantee the best deal” was horseshit, and they were in partnership with business controlling the whole thing, but back when LTT and other creators dropped Honey, that part wasn’t known yet, just that they poached affiliate links. Which is very scummy, but likely not illegal.
Americans are blind. They think their capitalism is also not state funded. The only difference is that in China corporations are owned by the state, and in the USA the state is owned by corporations. “It’s not fair” yeah, obviously it isn’t, the USA has been imperialistic and monopolistic over the entire global south for the past 7 decades, nobody wants to be playing with your bullshit rules anymore. The “free market” is heavily stacked in their favor, and always will be. Case in point? BRICS are about to move away from the dollar, and the USA immediately goes ballistic saying it will impose tariffs and sanctions and whatnot if we dare challenge their authority. Where’s the free market in that? Where’s the free market when your 2nd in command has said before that the USA will invade and coup whatever country they feel like it in order to get resources? Yeah, we’re not playing your stupid free market game anymore, it’s rigged. And yes, China is part of the global south, they have been so since they were oppressed and enslaved and explored by the global north for decades, they just did a good job of turning around. I wish my country had done as good of a job…