Pinterest is betting big on ads and e-commerce as it heads to the public market, breaking away from its hobbyist beginnings as it aims to show investors it can eventually turn a profit.
The online bulletin board plans to grow by making it easier for users, or pinners, as Pinterest calls them, to buy products. That would include making ads more relevant, expanding internationally, and using technologies like Lens, its visual recognition tool, to recommend more products.
“We plan to improve the utility of our service by making it easier for Pinners to go from inspiration to action,” the company said in its first public filing on Friday with regulators ahead of its planned initial public offering. “In particular, we want to make Pinterest more shoppable.”
