The history of Affiliate Networks is a messy and complicated business, with claims of this, lies of the other flying around all over the place.

So let’s begin.

The first real affiliate network was LinkShare, still going strong today, who created the concept and launched their affiliate network in 1996. Stephen Messer can take some of the credit for this. In the same year Be Free started their own small network, which was later acquired by ValueClick in 2002.

dgmAffiliates claims to be the first UK based affiliate network, starting up in 1999. Although UK based affiliate management came much earlier with Azam, launched in 1997.

There are many other firsts flying around, Buy.at the first to introduce RSS feeds to affiliates. Linkshare, the first to introduce a Loyalty Club, and CJ, the first to blow everybody else out of the water and still manage to mess up.

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