RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The images-based social network Pinterest announced on Monday, April 5, the launch in Brazil of its digital advertising platform, Pinterest Ads.
Brazil is the first country in Latin America to have the platform’s advertising model, already offered in 28 countries, including Canada, Australia, and countries in Europe. “Our mission is to make ads more inspirational,” says Jon Kaplan, Pinterest’s global sales leader, in an interview with Valor news magazine. “Brands can inspire and help people.”
In the fourth quarter of 2020, advertising earned the U.S. company revenue of US$706 million, up 76 percent over the result in the fourth quarter of 2019. Outside the United States, revenue advanced 145% to US$582 million in the final three months of last year.
“The pandemic made people discover and rediscover Pinterest,” says Kaplan. The network ended the fourth quarter of 2020 with 459 million monthly active users worldwide, a 37% increase over the same period in 2019.
Brazil reached 46 million users, a rise of more than 20% in one year. “We have very great demand from local advertisers and the global ones that want access to the Brazilian market,” says Kaplan.
Among the local brands that have already been testing Pinterest, Ads are Bauducco, O Boticário, Eudora, Itaú, Samsung, and Westwing.
The company, which has had a local office in São Paulo since 2014, has a team of more than 30 people in the country to sell advertising, including professionals focused on small advertisers. In November, the company hired André Loureiro, former director of Waze in Latin America, to lead the operation as Pinterest’s general manager in the region.
For Loureiro, Pinterest attracts brands’ interest because it is a kind of refuge from the polarization seen on other social networks. “It’s a universe of positivity that leaves the user less closed to advertisers.”
The refuge has not only attracted advertisers, but buyers interested in the company that is now worth more than US$48.8 billion. One of these is rumored to have been Microsoft, with a US$51 billion offer for Pinterest.
Kaplan declined to comment on possible bids but signaled that the company knows how much it is worth. “What we have is unique as a value proposition, and that’s why our business is growing so fast.”
In the past 12 months, the price of Pinterest’s shares traded on the US Nasdaq exchange has jumped from US$15.21 to US$77.73.
After Brazil, Mexico is the second stop for Pinterest Ads in Latin America. Kaplan says Japan is also in the sights of the company’s advertising platform this year.
Source: Valor