Bill Gates' daughter built a shopping app — and it just got exposed 👀
Phia was supposed to save you money. Find cheap prices. Grab discount codes. Simple, helpful, clean. 1.2 million downloads. $43.5 million raised. Backed by celebrities like Sydney Sweeney and Hailey Bieber. 💅
Looked great on paper.
Then Bloomberg tested it. And everything changed 😬
Here's how online shopping commissions work — when you click a link from a website and buy something, that website earns a small cut from the store. Fair deal. But it ONLY earns that cut if it actually sent you there.
Phia found a workaround 👇
The moment you were about to checkout — the app secretly opened a hidden browser tab in the background. You didn't click anything. You didn't know it happened. That hidden tab quietly told the store "this sale came from Phia" and vanished within seconds 💀
Found the product yourself? Phia takes the credit.
Clicked someone else's deal link first? Phia steals their commission.
In one test someone clicked a Wirecutter article to buy something on Nordstrom. Phia jumped in at the last second and snatched the commission that Wirecutter earned 😳
And it gets worse —
An older version of the app was caught copying entire pages users visited. Bank statements. Private emails. All quietly sent to Phia's servers 📂 They blamed it on trying to detect shopping sites. Sure. 😂
Sound familiar? This is EXACTLY what PayPal's Honey app got sued for in 2024. That lawsuit is still ongoing today.
Phia is now facing the same accusations. In year ONE. 💀
Big name. Big funding. Big scandal.
So who was this app actually built for — you or them? 👇
$MSFTB
#BillGates
Phia was supposed to save you money. Find cheap prices. Grab discount codes. Simple, helpful, clean. 1.2 million downloads. $43.5 million raised. Backed by celebrities like Sydney Sweeney and Hailey Bieber. 💅
Looked great on paper.
Then Bloomberg tested it. And everything changed 😬
Here's how online shopping commissions work — when you click a link from a website and buy something, that website earns a small cut from the store. Fair deal. But it ONLY earns that cut if it actually sent you there.
Phia found a workaround 👇
The moment you were about to checkout — the app secretly opened a hidden browser tab in the background. You didn't click anything. You didn't know it happened. That hidden tab quietly told the store "this sale came from Phia" and vanished within seconds 💀
Found the product yourself? Phia takes the credit.
Clicked someone else's deal link first? Phia steals their commission.
In one test someone clicked a Wirecutter article to buy something on Nordstrom. Phia jumped in at the last second and snatched the commission that Wirecutter earned 😳
And it gets worse —
An older version of the app was caught copying entire pages users visited. Bank statements. Private emails. All quietly sent to Phia's servers 📂 They blamed it on trying to detect shopping sites. Sure. 😂
Sound familiar? This is EXACTLY what PayPal's Honey app got sued for in 2024. That lawsuit is still ongoing today.
Phia is now facing the same accusations. In year ONE. 💀
Big name. Big funding. Big scandal.
So who was this app actually built for — you or them? 👇
$MSFTB
#BillGates