MyPoints.com Email Sends Members to Competitor Bing Cashback

In a MyPoints.com BonusMail yesterday, MyPoints members were told about the cashback opportunities available at rival cashback program Bing.
From their August 12th email entitled, “Search, shop and save — all on one site!”:
“Don’t break the bank getting your kids ready for school or prepped for college this fall. Instead, use Bing(TM) cashback and save as you shop. You name it, we’ve got it: apparel, books, backpacks — even office supplies. The best part? You can shop the way you’re used to shopping and earn cashback.”
It goes on to tell MyPoints members how to earn Bing cashback for shopping online, then rewards them with 5 MyPoints (worth around 3 cents) for visiting Bing Cashback.
What on EARTH was the logic behind this? You don’t turn on an ABC channel and see ads for NBC! Why would MyPoints be advertising a competitor…unless they have some deeper partnership in the works that maybe they’re just not telling us about yet? Could Microsoft/Bing be in talks to buy MyPoints, OR is Bing offering MyPoints commission on these sales? The only way I could see MyPoints agreeing to send Bing their shopping business is if they earned a higher commission on this than what they could earn on their own.
Bing doesn’t currently offer any kind of affiliate program as far as I know. I mention them a lot here on CompareRewards but I don’t get any kind of referral bonus for it — I just think it’s a neat program with a lot of potential to save people money. Maybe Bing worked out some kind of deal with MyPoints to share revenue on traffic they generate.
Interesting.
I’m also very curious why it was that I wasn’t targeted to receive this particular mail. It was forwarded to me by a friend, but it was not in my MyPoints email account. Maybe only people who have never shopped through MyPoints received it…?
If you have any scoop on this, I want to hear it! Please leave a comment or shoot me an email. Thanks!

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