Skip to main content

The context you need, when you need it

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our own.

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?

Join now

Pinterest expects to make more than $500 million in revenue this year

The visual discovery site is on the path to an IPO.

Advertising Week New York 2016 - Day 2
Advertising Week New York 2016 - Day 2
Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann
John Lamparski/Getty Images for Advertising Week New York

Pinterest may finally be growing into its $11 billion valuation.

Pinterest, which makes all of its money from advertising, is targeting more than $500 million in revenue in 2017, according to multiple sources familiar with the company’s plans. Some believe the company could generate as much as $600 million this year.

Even on the low end of that range, that would be a jump of at least 67 percent over the $300 million in revenue Pinterest brought in last year, when it had internal goals to bring in $1 million per day. The company generated $100 million in revenue in 2015.

Pinterest’s business is still relatively new. The company is in its third full year selling advertising and has just one type of ad offering, Promoted Pins, which let advertisers push their image or video posts to users who may not follow them on the service.

But those close to the company believe Pinterest is on the path to an IPO. Sources say Pinterest won’t IPO “soon” but that it’s currently putting the pieces in place. The company hired its first CFO, Todd Morgenfeld, from Twitter back in October, and has Facebook’s former monetization director, Tim Kendall, overseeing all of Pinterest’s revenue efforts, among other things.

Those close to Pinterest believe that if Snap, which generated roughly $400 million in revenue the year before its IPO and shares tens of millions in revenue with media partners, can fetch a valuation north of $20 billion on the public markets, Pinterest is in good shape to do something similar.

A company spokesperson sent Recode the following statement.

“We’re very happy with our revenue trajectory but aren’t sharing specifics about our revenue projections at this time. With regard to an IPO, we don’t have any current plans for an IPO right now because we’re focused on growing the business.”

Pinterest has made a strong push in the past two years toward visual search and recently added new features to help users actually buy the products they find on the service. But Pinterest doesn’t make any money from sales completed on Pinterest and has been adamant in the past that it has no plans to do so.

Instead, it hopes to continue growing its business through advertising. Research firm eMarketer projects marketers will spend nearly $37 billion in search advertising in the U.S. alone in 2017, though it doesn’t have Pinterest in its list of the top seven companies making money from that category.

Google dominates search advertising, claiming more than 75 percent of the U.S. market.

The other thing to watch with Pinterest is the company’s user growth. Pinterest has 150 million monthly active users, nearly half of them in the United States, a lucrative advertising market.

But Pinterest is also seven years old, and advertising businesses often rely on steady user growth. Snapchat, for example, has 150 million daily active users, but a recent slowdown in quarter-over-quarter growth already has some investors worried. Pinterest will certainly face the same kind of scrutiny.

Pinterest has raised more than $1 billion in venture funding from a slew of investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, FirstMark Capital, SV Angel and Fidelity.


This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

More in Technology

Podcasts
Are humanoid robots all hype?Are humanoid robots all hype?
Podcast
Podcasts

AI is making them better — but they’re not going to be doing your chores anytime soon.

By Avishay Artsy and Sean Rameswaram
Future Perfect
The old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemicThe old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemic
Future Perfect

Glycol vapors, explained.

By Shayna Korol
Future Perfect
Elon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wantsElon Musk could lose his case against OpenAI — and still get what he wants
Future Perfect

It’s not about who wins. It’s about the dirty laundry you air along the way.

By Sara Herschander
Life
Why banning kids from AI isn’t the answerWhy banning kids from AI isn’t the answer
Life

What kids really need in the age of artificial intelligence.

By Anna North
Culture
Anthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque messAnthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque mess
Culture

“Your AI monster ate all our work. Now you’re trying to pay us off with this piece of garbage that doesn’t work.”

By Constance Grady
Future Perfect
Some deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapySome deaf children are hearing again because of a new gene therapy
Future Perfect

A medical field that almost died is quietly fixing one disease at a time.

By Bryan Walsh