Pinterest is going to start experimenting with advertising in the form of promoted pins within the next few weeks.
Pinterest founder and CEO Ben Silbermann announced this in a blog post yesterday. According to Silbermann, the decision to start monetising the platform is to ensure future sustainability. "It's so important that Pinterest is a service that will be here to stay. To help make sure it does, we're going to start experimenting with promoting certain pins from a select group of businesses."
However, he emphasises this does not mean the sudden appearance of banner ads. "While we haven't figured out all the details, I can say that promoted pins will be tasteful, [meaning] no flashy banners or pop-up ads, and transparent. We'll always let you know if someone paid for what you see, or where you see it."
He further promises that pins will be relevant to the user and be improved based on feedback.
Silbermann says Pinterest will start out by promoting a few pins in search results and category feeds. "For example, a pin for a Darth Vader outfit from a costume shop might be promoted in a search for 'Halloween'," he says. Nobody is paying for anything yet, as the company first wants to see how things go and get some feedback from its users, he explains.
The possibility of Pinterest introducing advertising on its site has been much-rumoured since its inception, especially because of the commercial nature of the site. Pins often include photos of products complete with its retail price and a link of where to get it online.
A study done by Semiocast reportedly shows Pinterest currently has over 70 million users, and that 45% of new users that registered in June 2013 were from outside the US. Pinterest reportedly racks up around 2.5 billion monthly page views.
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