Pinterest now has 250M MAUs, saw user growth of 27% and revenue growth of 50% YoY, but sources say its steady approach has frustrated some investors, employees
SAN FRANCISCO — Ben Silbermann does not enjoy being interviewed. He isn't a fan of speaking at tech industry conferences. Tweets: @eringriffith , @kerrymflynn , and @jackiehluo Tweets: Erin Griffith / @eringriffith : Pinterest crossed 250m users, is on track to top $700 million in revenue this year. Here's a profile I wrote about the unicorn that rejected Silicon Valley's playbook of aggressive, hype-driven growth: http://www.nytimes.com/... Kerry Flynn / @kerrymflynn : INBOX:- Pinterest now has more than 250 million monthly active users - More than half of Pinterest's users + 80% of signups are from outside of U.S.- People have saved more than 175 billion ideas on Pinterest- Co. has grown 32% since last year, more than 1,500 employees @jackiehluo : a really interesting story on pinterest and its slower, more thoughtful approach to growth. according to ben silbermann, “there's a natural rate at which you can scale a company that's healthy.” http://www.nytimes.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Pinterest's steady-growth profile has been building for a while: sources reported in late 2017 that the company would fall short of its projected $500M for 2017 even as it planned a 2019 IPO, and by mid-2018 revenue had reached $473M on nearly 250M monthly users. Today's numbers — 250M MAUs, 27% user growth, 50% revenue growth, on track to top $700M this year — confirm the compounding is real.
The tension in Erin Griffith's profile is that the same deliberateness producing those numbers is what frustrates insiders: Silbermann rejected Silicon Valley's hype-driven playbook, and later coverage argued the slow approach built a distinct brand while letting louder platforms dominate the press.
First-order effects
- Pinterest's investors and employees now have a live test of whether quiet compounding pays: the company is growing users 27% and revenue 50% YoY, yet some stakeholders are frustrated by the pace and low profile of that growth.
Second-order effects
- If the steady approach keeps delivering, Pinterest enters its planned IPO window with a cleaner story than hype-grown peers — as it later did when it beat Q2 estimates after going public with 300M MAUs and 62% revenue growth.
Third-order effects
- The pattern points toward a split in how consumer internet companies are valued: durable, brand-differentiated growers like Pinterest versus growth-at-all-costs platforms, with public-market scrutiny eventually testing which model sustains user trust and monetization.
The trend: Consumer internet companies are increasingly choosing deliberate, brand-led growth over hype-driven expansion, betting that patience compounds into more durable monetization at IPO time.