INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Two hundred and fifty million people are using Pinterest every month, up from 200 million last September, according to new numbers the
company shared this morning
The visual search giant is also reporting that more than half of its users and 80 percent of new sign-ups come from outside the United
States
Pins,&or items saved to the site, are growing, too
There are now 175 billion of them, a 75 percent increase YoY.
To facilitate that growth,Pinterest has been on a hiring spree
It now has more than 1,500 employees, a 32 percent increase from last year.
The company has secured more than $1 billion in venture capital
funding, most recently raising $150 million at a $12.3 billion valuation
Many expected it would make its highly anticipated public debut in early 2018, but that ship has sailed at this point
Now, reports indicate Pinterest is looking at a mid-2019 IPO and expects to reach $1 billion in annual revenue for the first
time.
Pinterest raises $150M at a $12.3B valuation as it makes a full press into visual search
Those numbers should help it garner support
on Wall Street, as will this nugget: The part of Pinterest that includes items for purchase on retailer sites is the fastest growing part of
the platform,up 115 percent in the last year
The company key sell to VCs has been that its visual search tool converts users to buyers, but with Instagram going full speed ahead as an
e-commerce platform, it will take data points like that one to convince investors it worthy of that $12.3 billion valuation.
Pinteresthas
been busy expanding as it presumably gears up for an IPO
In March, itintroduced the following tab, where users could view only the content from brands and people they follow
It also added the Pinterest Propel program as part of an effort to create more local content for its users
And it implemented full-screen video ads to beef up its advertising options— an area where it competes directly with Facebook and Google.
