Pinterest, Inc. (PINS) Business Profile

What it does

Pinterest is a visual search and discovery platform where people find ideas, save them and explore products. It is available through a mobile app and on the web. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, and Bill Ready is its chief executive officer.

People browse content called Pins, which can include images, videos, collages and product listings. They can search for an idea, tap a Pin to see related content, or save Pins to virtual boards organized around a topic. Someone planning a room, for example, can collect ideas and explore products as their preferences take shape.

Retailers, brands, creators, publishers and users supply content through methods including catalog uploads, direct publishing and user curation. Pinterest uses signals from searches, saves and other activity to personalize recommendations. It calls the network of connections among Pins, searches, boards, products and users its Taste Graph.

Pinterest sells advertising to businesses that want to reach people at different stages of deciding what to buy. Ads can appear alongside other content and lead to an advertiser’s website or app. The company has also made Pinterest Assistant, a conversational AI feature intended to help users research and narrow choices, available to the vast majority of U.S. users.

How it makes money

Pinterest generates substantially all of its revenue from advertising on its app and website. Businesses can buy ads directly or through advertising agencies. The majority use Ads Manager to set up and manage campaigns, while Pinterest’s sales teams work directly with advertisers and agencies that need additional support.

The vast majority of advertisers buy through an auction. Pinterest selects an ad for an available impression using factors including the likelihood of a desired action and the value of that action to the advertiser. The company offers campaigns aimed at brand awareness as well as campaigns aimed at measurable actions such as clicks, checkouts or adding an item to a cart. Depending on the campaign, advertisers can be billed for impressions, video views, clicks or other actions.

Formats include static images, videos, shopping ads for catalog products, carousels and interactive ads. Some ads provide a direct link to an advertiser’s app or webpage. Advertisers can target audiences using interests, demographics and search keywords, and use Pinterest’s measurement tools or third-party services to assess results.

Pinterest Performance+ automates parts of campaign setup, including targeting, bidding and creative optimization. The company is also piloting a connection between some advertisers’ own measurement systems and its AI bidding systems. Pinterest earns revenue as it delivers the contracted advertising service; purchases and spending can vary with advertisers’ campaign decisions rather than being fixed subscriptions.

Revenue was $4,221.8 million in 2025 and increased year-over-year in Q2 2026. Pinterest has historically had higher revenue in the fourth quarter, when industry advertising spending tends to be strongest.

Customers and how it sells

Pinterest serves both people looking for ideas and businesses seeking to advertise to them. Its advertisers span retail, consumer packaged goods, financial services, technology and entertainment, travel and auto. Pinterest serves advertisers differently depending on their size, sophistication and objectives, using self-service tools, direct sales teams and, in some geographies, third parties.

At the end of Q2 2026, Pinterest had 640 million global monthly active users: 106 million in the U.S. and Canada, 157 million in Europe and 377 million in the Rest of World. At year-end 2025, women represented roughly two-thirds of its user base and Gen Z represented over 50%. Users came from over 100 countries globally.

Revenue is allocated by Pinterest’s estimate of where users are located when they generate advertising activity. Q2 2026 revenue was $880 million in the U.S. and Canada, $213 million in Europe and $87 million in the Rest of World. Pinterest monetizes only certain countries and currencies, and its revenue per user differs by geography.

For 2025, annual average revenue per user was $30.84 in the U.S. and Canada, $5.12 in Europe and $0.83 in the Rest of World. Pinterest attributes the higher figures in the U.S. and Canada and, to a lesser extent, Europe primarily to the size and maturity of those digital advertising markets.

Suppliers and costs

Pinterest’s content comes from retailers, brands, creators, publishers and users rather than from a manufacturing operation. It also depends on third-party content, technology and intellectual property. Amazon Web Services is a named infrastructure provider; Pinterest had a $312.3 million commitment with it as of December 31, 2025, without annual purchase commitments.

The company’s primary uses of cash are personnel-related costs and hosting its website and app. Cost of revenue includes hosting, operations staff, partner payments, transaction processing, acquired intangible asset amortization and allocated overhead. Research and development is primarily personnel expense, while sales and marketing includes staff, promotion, reseller services and other support costs.

Share-based compensation expense was $880.5 million in 2025. Pinterest had 5,265 full-time employees as of December 31, 2025. In Q2 2026, cost of revenue was $245 million, up 25% year-over-year, reflecting a full quarter of tvScientific and investment in additional GPU capacity. Pinterest expects AI-related computing and token spending to grow over time.

Competitive position

Pinterest competes with search, e-commerce and media companies for users’ attention, creators and publishers, advertisers, and technical employees. Named competitors include Amazon, Meta, Google, OpenAI, Snap, Reddit, TikTok and X. Their products offer content or commerce opportunities, and many competitors have greater financial and human resources than Pinterest.

Pinterest’s approach centers on visual discovery and the movement from an idea toward a purchase. Its personalized feed, visual search and related Pins use activity on the platform to help users refine what they want. The company also offers advertising across brand and performance objectives, with measurement and automated campaign tools.

Our reading: The Taste Graph is a meaningful source of differentiation because user searches, saves and curation create signals used to personalize content and advertising. Its strength depends on Pinterest continuing to attract activity and relevant content.

Our reading: The connection between discovery and shopping can give Pinterest a reason to be included in advertisers’ campaigns, but it is not exclusive protection against platforms competing for the same budgets. Advertisers’ ability to measure results matters because they can choose among competing formats and providers.

Our reading: Intellectual property offers some protection for technology and branding, but it does not prevent rivals from offering similar experiences. Pinterest also depends on third-party technology and content and faces intellectual-property claims.

Growth opportunities

Pinterest is investing in relevance and personalization to attract and retain users. Global monthly active users increased 12% in 2025 compared with December 31, 2024, and reached 640 million at the end of Q2 2026, up 11% year-over-year. The company has expanded AI features for users and advertisers, including Pinterest Assistant and Performance+.

Pinterest is working to improve how advertisers bid and measure results. It is piloting the integration of some advertisers’ internal measurement systems with its AI bidding systems, and plans to expand that work to a limited number of additional advertisers. It is also adjusting sales coverage and support for mid-market and smaller advertisers. Pinterest describes broader advertiser adoption of its automated tools as a multiyear process.

International monetization is another area of investment. Pinterest is testing an expansion of third-party advertising demand into Europe and has appointed a head of international sales to work on market coverage and advertiser relationships. The company said organizational changes and difficult comparisons moderated growth in Europe and the Rest of World in Q2 2026.

Pinterest acquired tvScientific, adding connected-TV advertising capabilities. It expects to integrate those capabilities directly into Performance+ in 2027. In Q2 2026, global revenue grew 18% year-over-year, while advertising impressions grew 16% and ad pricing increased 1%.

Structural risks

• Advertising dependence: Pinterest generates substantially all of its revenue from advertising. Lower user engagement, changes in ad prices, weaker advertiser demand or ineffective measurement could harm that revenue. Advertising spending can also be affected by economic conditions.

• Privacy and regulation: Changes in privacy practices, laws or third-party policies can affect the advertising Pinterest can provide. Restrictions on using personal data, including data relating to teens, may limit ad targeting. It was reported on 30 October 2026 that Pinterest attributed approximately three percentage points of the sequential slowdown in global revenue growth to a European regulatory change.

• Competition and engagement: Rivals can copy features or develop products that users find more engaging. Pinterest’s growth and retention can also suffer if search results, recommendations or available products do not meet users’ needs, or if users object to the type or frequency of ads.

• Content and platform access: Pinterest depends on third parties allowing their content to appear on the service. Harmful or inappropriate content can deter users and advertisers, while restrictions on access or difficulties using the app and website can reduce engagement.

• Technology and costs: Pinterest depends on hosting and other third-party technology and faces intellectual-property claims. Investment in GPU capacity adds to cost of revenue, and the company expects AI-related computing and token spending to grow.

Bottom line

Our reading

Our reading: Pinterest is an advertising business built around visual discovery, with user curation providing signals that support recommendations and ad targeting. Its growth depends on turning that activity into measurable advertiser results, including in markets where revenue per user is lower. The same model leaves it exposed to competition for attention and budgets, privacy restrictions and the costs of running AI services.