When Pinterest was valued at 2.5 billion in February, there was a lot of uproar on tech sites, and there were those who said it was a ridiculous valuation.
We weren't among them- it's our contention that Pinterest is pure, golden genius for sellin stuff. On September 19, Pinterest announced its first serious monetization strategy, Promoted Pins. On October 9th, they began testing. Oddly enough, I haven't noticed any promoted pins in my feed- even though I go on Pinterest every day, several times a day. This could be because my feed is full of consumer goods from major retailers like Pottery Barn and ModCloth already, since I follow people who like to shop, like me. Or because they're not very noticeable. You can see what Promoted Pins look like below.
Pinterest also rolled out new article Pins, with larger content snips and prominent publisher links, an Android widget, Pinterest for Facebook Home, and an updated iPhone app, in the last month. Way to spend your investors' money on actual releasable upgrades, guys. Some of the $225 million raised in the funding round attached to this valuation might get spent on making code and developing value too. Some of it's definitely earmarked for aggressive international growth. This is interesting to me because Pinterest has brought non-eBay international shopping into my life- I've ordered things from boutiques in London, South America and Europe in the last six months.
We think Pinterest is an aspirational magic-gro par excellence that can drive crazy sales for businesses in the right categories.
This year I've personally scrimped and saved - I even gave up buying coffee every day! - to spend a thousand dollars on European shoe brands I'd never heard of before getting on Pinterest in January. I'd never even considered buying shoes that cost more than a hundred dollars, or paying thirty dollars for international shipping - but then Pinterest surfaced Dkode, Bocage, Brako and Neosens for me. My Dkode scallop-detail granny boots in violet leather and purple oiled suede, bought end-of-season at 30% off, were worth every penny. If I had venture capitol, I'd sure as hell want to get in on Pinterest. Since I don't, all I can do is say, retailers, build your Pinterest footprint. Suzanne on Google plus