Bixberry has connected its rewards app to GIFQ, giving people who share their internet connections a way to turn earnings into gift cards. Announced on August 31, 2026, the partnership brings an international redemption catalogue into a business whose supply depends on participants being in the right places. [S01]
Bixberry separately confirmed that GIFQ Send was live. Users can redeem through locally available gift cards, prepaid products and subscriptions without supplying a bank account for that redemption. The companies advertise catalogue coverage across more than 100 countries; an individual account still sees the products available for its market and balance. [S02]
Why a network company needs local rewards
Bixberry says it launched in 2026 to connect AI businesses making live web requests with people who opt to share their connections. Its founding team came from network products. Participants supply a resource the business needs, rather than completing surveys or buying something to collect loyalty points. [S06]
The app routes requests in the background, with earnings linked to availability and demand for connections in a particular region. That gives the business two audiences to serve: companies seeking web access and people supplying it. A large pool in one country cannot necessarily substitute for connections in another. This geographic requirement helps explain why payout coverage matters to the underlying service. [S03]
Bixberry chief product officer Egle Maldute made that connection in the announcement: local internet access requires local participants, while a narrow payout footprint could constrain recruitment. Gift cards offer one way to reward people where a small international bank payment may be cumbersome. The announcement does not disclose comparative transfer costs or a measured increase in participation. [S01]
What GIFQ brings to the arrangement
GIFQ, led by Dimitrijus Stepanov, developed its business payout infrastructure from experience operating a gift card marketplace. Its company account describes previously maintaining nine supplier APIs before consolidating catalogue and balance management. Bixberry is buying access to that distribution work instead of arranging supply independently in every market. [S05]
The commercial logic is complementary. Bixberry can concentrate engineering effort on its connection network; GIFQ gains a route to repeated redemptions generated by users' earnings. This is an assessment of the arrangement, not evidence of disclosed revenue sharing. Neither company has published the contract value, wholesale discount structure or margin retained on a payout.
What the reward is worth to the participant
Bixberry's published redemption rules set different thresholds for the first and subsequent payouts. Fees can vary by brand and are displayed before confirmation. [S04]
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For participants, usefulness therefore depends on more than the catalogue's size: the selected card must match a place they can spend, and any charge affects the value received. A reward can encourage someone to keep a connection available, but the integration alone does not establish higher retention or a predictable monthly income.
Bixberry also describes controls for opting out and managing the app's battery, data and background activity. Those resource costs remain part of the exchange. Easier redemption changes how contributors receive their reward; it does not remove the need for them to decide whether sharing a connection is worthwhile. [S06]
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Daniel Brooks
Daniel Brooks covers payment networks, financial technology, payment security, gift card fraud and PCI DSS for Gift Card News.