Psst, Pinterest is quietly growing into a digital ad giant
For years, Pinterest has been the almost-forgotten social network. Sure, people know what it is, but it hasn’t scaled at the same pace of services like Facebook and Instagram. But the company is seeing some real signs of growth–and many believe an IPO is on the horizon.
A new forecast from eMarketer provides some data points to help contextualize the company’s future. According to these new numbers, Pinterest’s advertising revenue will hit $553.3 million this year. By 2020, it will exceed $1 billion. For context, Amazon’s advertising program–which is still generally considered in its nascent stages–has already exceeded $1 billion.
In addition to revenue, Pinterest’s ad revenue per user is expected to rise dramatically—from $7.15 this year to $11.99 in 2020. These numbers, writes eMarketer, put Pinterest in line with Snap.
User numbers are also on the up and up for the social network. A recent New York Times profile said Pinterest has 250 million monthly active users. Of course, this is lower than Twitter–which most recently reported 335 million MAUs, and of course Facebook, which has about 2.23 billion.
Which is to say that Pinterest is still on the smaller side, especially compared to the other social juggernauts, but these numbers indicate that it may be a force to watch out for.
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