MyVoucherCodes

MyVoucherCodes.co.uk is an online voucher code company, currently owned by Future plc.

MyVoucherCodes
Founded2006 (2006) in Croydon, Surrey, United Kingdom
FounderMark Pearson
HeadquartersLondon, England, UK
Area served
France, Germany, United States, Italy, Spain, Netherlands
Key people
Chris Reilly (Managing Director)
ServicesVoucher Codes
Revenue£12.85 million (2016/17)
OwnerGoCompare.com
Websitewww.myvouchercodes.co.uk

Company history

MyVoucherCodes.co.uk launched by Mark Pearson in 2006 in his bedroom with £300. He initially started a company that delivered printed messages on roses called Roses by Design, but moved into vouchers after he found he was making more money promoting others products rather than his own and noticed there were no coupon sites in the UK. Initially, Pearson paid someone to build a website and then set up a tech team based in Rotherham, and once the site started making money, a sales team in Glasgow. In the first year MyVoucherCodes had a turnover of £300,000.[1] In 2011 the company bought VouChaCha in 2011, which became their mobile location-based player, and the following year they bought Last Second Tickets, a discounted tickets reseller for sport, events and attractions. In the first half of the decade they also expanded to France, Germany, and United States, and then to Italy, Spain, and Netherlands.[2] In June 2014, after suffering a significant drop in revenue from £8m to £4.5m due to Google Algorithm changes,[3] he sold parent company Markco Media to Monitise for £55m in an all-shares deal, including earnouts.[4] Pearson owned 100% of the business, having grown it by using the positive cashflow rather than taking investment. Next, the company started to focus on mobile traffic.[5][6] By 2014 60,000 businesses used MyVoucherCodes.[1]

In early 2017 MyVoucherCodes acquired Happiour, a geo-location based app that offers consumers local food and drink offers.[7] Between 2015 and 2017 the company made YouTube ads with students from the School of Communication Arts on a budget of £700 that parodied the John Lewis Christmas TV ads.[8][9][10] In July 2017, Monitise, the parent company of MyVoucherCodes was acquired by US financial services provider Fiserv. In December 2017, UK price comparison website GoCompare.com announced it was buying MyVoucherCodes for £36.5m.[11]

Awards
  • The Masters of Marketing Awards 2017 - #BudgetBuster[12]
  • PRCA South East and East Anglia Awards - Digital and Social Media Campaign of the Year[13]

References
  1. Swale, Will (20 October 2014). The king of discount voucher codes. BBC News Online
  2. Wallis, Ian (Jul 31, 2015). Exclusive: Inside story of MyVoucherCodes.co.uk founder Mark Pearson’s £55m exit. Startups.co.uk
  3. MVP Products Ltd (formerly Markco Media Ltd) - Companies House Records 'Group of companies' accounts made up to 31 July 2014 (15 June 2015)'
  4. O'Hear, Steve (26 June 2014). 'Monitise Acquires Markco Media For Up To £55M, Includes MyVoucherCodes And Last Second Tickets'. TechCrunch.
  5. Anderson, Elizabeth (10 October 2014). 'I left school at 16 and sold my business for £55m. Now I want to help other young entrepreneurs’. The Daily Telegraph.
  6. Green, Harriet (17 November 2014). Thinking bigger: My Voucher Codes founder Mark Pearson talks Fern Britton and young tech entrepreneurs. City AM.
  7. (6 November 2017). Rock on: Five tips for building a successful tech company. SME Magazine.
  8. Connelly, Tony (6 November 2015). MyVoucherCodes recreate low-budget version of the John Lewis Christmas ad. The Drum.
  9. O’Donnell, Richard (11 November 2011). MyVoucherCodes.co.uk releases discount parody of John Lewis Christmas ad. Gorkana.com.
  10. Glenday, John (10 November 2017). MyVoucherCodes to parody #MoztheMonster John Lewis ad with shoestring budget. The Drum.
  11. Cox, Josie (19 December 2017). GoCompare to buy MyVoucherCodes in £36.5m deal. The Independent.
  12. The Masters of Marketing Awards 2017
  13. Public Relations and Communications Association 2017 Awards Winners
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