I get why Pinterest is interesting. I don't use it, but I get why people use it although maybe I should. But what I don't get is why a site with pictures to pin needs $200M. It's basically still the same site it was when it had $500K in funding. Does it cost $200M to scale from thousands of users to hundreds of millions? Wikipedia doesn't need $200M to run.
Pinterest Raises $200M
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Re: Pinterest Raises $200M
#32"In the future search will be a discovery tool" ... I think this sentence needs some work. It feels empty of meaning. Am I missing something? Or does the sentence really simply mean: "in the future search will be a way to discover things"? Because in that case the future may already be here :)
It may possibly be that search today is used to find a particular thing that you are looking for (directions, a way to fix code, a specific book). Whereas in the future, search will lead you to new things that you didn't specifically know you needed to find. More like browsing random sections of a book store.
But yes, it definitely sounds like it's saying that search will be a tool to search for things.
Re: Pinterest Raises $200M
#33I get why Pinterest is interesting. I don't use it, but I get why people use it although maybe I should. But what I don't get is why a site with pictures to pin needs $200M. It's basically still the same site it was when it had $500K in funding. Does it cost $200M to scale from thousands of users to hundreds of millions? Wikipedia doesn't need $200M to run.
Maybe. We don't know their future plans.
Re: Pinterest Raises $200M
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Me too. I use it to get inspired at work (for UI design) and home (me and my significant other have a board for backyard ideas) and creative pursuits (like graphic arts). The space is also very monetizable. I think Pinterest is going to be bigger than Twitter.
Do you find UI inspiration by searching or just have you started following people who pin related items?
I used FB connect to sign up way back when and I followed my friends. Some of my friends in UI design started pinning cool stuff, so I followed the original "pinner." Then I started following Pinterest's suggestions for me.
Recollecting this makes me realize what a great product is -- it just evolves with you. It couldn't be simpler.
Re: Pinterest Raises $200M
#35I thought pinterest was a waste of time. Then I got engaged to get married. Searching for something like 'wedding favours' on google gives a pretty boring list of top10 lists and other cruft, but a similar search on pinterest gives a great view of peoples ideas, descriptions, alternatives, etc. For me, this type of searching is pretty rare, but pinterest is definitely the best tool I've seen for this
It's great for design ideas of almost any kind. For example, I wanted to see how people were setting up their stacked washer and dryer units: http://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=stacked%20washer%20d...
Another source for home decor is Houzz, which is more of a professional designer portfolio + marketplace, but also a good source of inspiration. http://www.houzz.com/stacked-washer-dryer
Re: Pinterest Raises $200M
#36I've heard the name and ignored it. But what the hell, let's take a look. Obviously, this website is very popular with some people but if you go to the default page you get this: http://imgur.com/XWdkO8i ...a popup that says "He used Pinterest to start his collection" on top of a blurry background. Who's "He"? Sign up with Facebook? Why? And all this confusion in a popup? Really? The very worst aspect of 1990s web de…
At this stage, people who arrive at Pinterest's signup page already know what they're getting themselves into. The word-of-mouth factor is massive. A new user has heard from her friend how great the site is. She's not going to be daunted by signup flow that has a modal you can close, or whatever else your post was about. You've missed the point entirely.
Re: Pinterest Raises $200M
#37I thought pinterest was a waste of time. Then I got engaged to get married. Searching for something like 'wedding favours' on google gives a pretty boring list of top10 lists and other cruft, but a similar search on pinterest gives a great view of peoples ideas, descriptions, alternatives, etc. For me, this type of searching is pretty rare, but pinterest is definitely the best tool I've seen for this
haha, exactly the same experience here. I couldn't really see what the point was until my fiancée started searching for wedding venues and ideas.
Re: Pinterest Raises $200M
#38I get why Pinterest is interesting. I don't use it, but I get why people use it although maybe I should. But what I don't get is why a site with pictures to pin needs $200M. It's basically still the same site it was when it had $500K in funding. Does it cost $200M to scale from thousands of users to hundreds of millions? Wikipedia doesn't need $200M to run.
It still costs money to acquire new users. It's easy to think when something becomes a household name there is no need to keep spending to bring new users on. As with most social sites the bigger the network is the harder it is for competitors to come in and steal their position. Pinterest user base is still "only" around 50 million. Thats 5% the size of Facebook.
Additionally the markets are not treating tech stocks so well right now, this might last another three months, and it might last a year and a half. What you know for sure is that you don't want to go out and try to raise money when the market is really down. You'll be terribly diluted if you're even able to raise money at all. They get what you can now, because they don't know how long it will be until the IPO.
These are only a couple of the considerations, if they are planning an IPO very soon then there's a completely different motivation. Hope this helps.
Re: Pinterest Raises $200M
#39I get why Pinterest is interesting. I don't use it, but I get why people use it although maybe I should. But what I don't get is why a site with pictures to pin needs $200M. It's basically still the same site it was when it had $500K in funding. Does it cost $200M to scale from thousands of users to hundreds of millions? Wikipedia doesn't need $200M to run.
They'd be crazy not to take $200m for 4% give or take. Given the beating high flying tech stocks have taken lately on Wall St., and the continued Fed tapering, who knows how much longer the easy money gates will remain open. Better to take it now, and have tons of cash to ride out any eventuality. Bull markets don't run forever, and clearly Pinterest is hardly even in the first inning of monetization, so they're going to need the money. The public markets, even in semi-euphoric mode, will not react well to zero sales and $200m a year in losses.
Re: Pinterest Raises $200M
#40Shouldn't they have their own $200M by now? No but seriously.