back to article Profitless internet biz Pinterest seeks $2.5 BILLION valuation

Online scrap repository Pinterest is trying to raise a new round of funding that would value the as-yet-profitless firm at $2bn to $2.5bn. Undeterred by the lack of an actual business model, the cupcake and kitten scrapbook firm reckons that existing backers like venture firms Andreessen Horowitz and Bessemer Venture Partners …

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  1. Pen-y-gors

    copyright?

    how much will pinterest be worth when people realise that the entire business model is based on breaching copyright, and they start to sue them for every cent they (don't) have?

    1. Ian 55

      Re: copyright?

      You mean like YouTube, before Google bought it?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: copyright?

      Exactly. I wouldn't mind if they showed smaller sized images or implemented a system to fingerprint images so they stayed down once you had them taken down. PInterest hijacks Google Image Search results from the real owners of those images on the original sites, people have absolutely zero incentive to click through to your site. It's a far cry from the way people share links on Facebook with a thumbnail and a blurb of text.

  2. frank ly

    History - learning from it - as if

    You know how we look back at boo.com and similar ventures, then say, "WTF was that all about?". Well, ......

  3. lglethal Silver badge
    Thumb Down

    Double Smubble...

    "On the holiday online sales day known as Cyber Monday, the number of referrals for products that came from Pinterest more than doubled from the same day the year before, according to Adobe's Digital Index."

    Double of 1 is still bugger all... Without actual figures, I would consider that to be a pretty useless argument...

    1. Colin Millar

      Re: Double Smubble...

      The actual figures are there in the linked doc and it is as bad as you think

      Social referral share of online sales on Cyber Monday was 2% (up 100% YOY) of which Pinterest was 15% (of the 2%) up 105% YOY. So 0.3% up from 0.15% YOY. The phrase "statistically meaningless" comes to mind.

      Still - it's probably enough to convince people with money > sense to part with the spondoolicks.

    2. Robin

      Re: Double Smubble...

      I agree with your general point, but

      "Double of 1 is still bugger all"

      Double of 1 is 2

  4. Amonynous

    Lot of money to spend on donuts and coffee then isn't it?

    "Pinterest has yet to make any profit or even any revenue, but on the upside, it doesn't really have any costs either."

    If it has no costs, why does it need $2.5Bn in funding? Let's say they spend half the investment on their 100 staff, and be generous at an average salary of $80K per year, and the rest on office space, servers, coffee and donuts, etc. That would be enough money to keep them up and running for the next 156 years.

    So clearly they are planning to spend that money on something. More staff, gold plated executive wash rooms, new features and functionality, expense account lunches for analysts and journos? Or perhaps they will go on a spree and acquire a whole bunch of other non-profit-making startups with equally pointless web properties, no valuable IP and no business model?

    1. spork
      Facepalm

      Re: Lot of money to spend on donuts and coffee then isn't it?

      Valuation != funding. If your firm sells me 1% of its shares for $10M, your firm has a "post-money" valuation of $1Bn but only receives the $10M.

    2. Mike Flugennock

      Re: Lot of money to spend on donuts and coffee then isn't it?

      ...If it has no costs, why does it need $2.5Bn in funding?

      Well, there's the stylish converted post-industrial office space, and all those Razor scooters and skateboards that have to be bought and maintained, and the espresso machines, and the foosball tables, and the overstuffed beanbag chairs, and the on-site gym, and the on-site cupcake shop, and the vet bills for the CEO's on-site dog ('cause, y'know, every dot-com startup worth a damn' has an official office dog) and the Art Director's on-site iguana ('cause every Web start-up Art Director worth a damn' keeps an iguana in the office).

      Have I missed anything?

  5. Wanda Lust

    Re-headlining

    I misread the headline as "Pointless Internet Biz Pinterest....." and the first line as "Online crap repository".

    Not far off the truth, eh?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    When you compare it to proper art sharing sites like DeviantArt, Pinterest is bloody awful! "art scrapyard" does indeed sum it up. I was going to submit then realised that there appears to be no orgnisation to the place, it's the usual "titties'n'kitties" crowd uploading wank and I never got as far as reading the T&Cs to see how much of my copyright privs are being flushed down the kharzi if I ever uploaded anything!

    I have to agree, there appears to be no drive to make it profitable or provide any kind of maintainable business model. Some college kids set up art sharing site, con some rich and dopey VCs in to handing over just about enough to pay for the startup servers and IT staff, plus Porsches and parking spaces all round for the directors of Pinterest but that's as far as the plan seems to have got!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Aren't all art-sharing sites

      full of yogurt-weaving hipsters and Rule 34?

    2. Mike Flugennock
      FAIL

      "titties'n'kitties" (+1!)

      ...it's the usual "titties'n'kitties" crowd uploading wank and I never got as far as reading the T&Cs to see how much of my copyright privs are being flushed down the kharzi if I ever uploaded anything!

      Yeah, I went there and read it, too, just out of curiosity. I appreciate their translating the legalese for us, except they made the mistake of translating it into cutesy Frisco hipsterese instead of English. Their translation of the legalese for "Governing Law And Jurisdiction" especially annoyed me:

      "The Bay Area is beautiful this time of year. It's doesn't matter what time of year it is, that's what's so great! Anyway, you'll have to sue us here."

      Yeah, whatever... goddamn' cupcake-eating motherfuckers... but, aaaaaanyway.

      Of course, amidst all the cutesy hipster banter is buried the standard-issue signing-your-rights-away arbitration language:

      "YOU AGREE THAT, BY ENTERING INTO THESE TERMS, YOU AND PINTEREST ARE EACH WAIVING THE RIGHT TO A TRIAL BY JURY OR TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS ACTION."

      Bah. I'm gone.

  7. Code Monkey
    Headmaster

    Cupcakes?

    * buns

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    They're desperately hanging in there

    while trying to get Zuck to buy them & rebrand them as Scrapbook

    1. Mike Flugennock

      Re: They're desperately hanging in there

      ...while trying to get Zuck to buy them & rebrand them as Scrapbook

      Well, that makes sense, but.... d'ahhhh, I dunno, man. I think Fuckerberg's already been burned once over the whole Instagram thing.

  9. Anonymous Coward 15
    Thumb Down

    Something about being doomed, and history repeating itself?

  10. bag o' spanners

    To paraphrase that nice Mr Barnum..."there's two born every minute"

    It's just a case of smarmy traders matching the volume of artless content to credulous investors. Cynical flotation exercises have a long history of snagging the latter.

  11. Tony Barnes
    WTF?

    Has anyone got anything positive to say about Pinterest?

    I've tried using it.

    I've added the app to my phone.

    I've had a look around at other people's pins.

    Pros:

    Nice polished presentation

    Lots of pretty pictures

    Cons:

    Pictures are by and large 'stolen' content

    What the fuck does it actually do?

    Seriously, I browsed about, and as far as I can tell, it's Facebook photos/Tumblr/etc - doesn't bring anything actually useful/new to the table bar a pretty layout.

    How on earth it can achieve such a potential level of funding is beyond crazy. I need to come up with a pointless but pretty Web 4.5 application* and make some quick millions from stupid investors.

    Insane...

    (*4.5 > 2.0 = more cash, obviously)

    1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      Re: Has anyone got anything positive to say about Pinterest?

      Lots of people do - that's why it's popular. I have family members and friends who love the thing. It may not be your cup o' tea, but - and I know this is a tough concept for Reg commentators - people are not all the same.

      I have an account myself, though I only use it to see what the wife might be wanting for gift-giving occasions. (Of course the fact that I've never "pinned" anything hasn't stopped me from acquiring several "followers". The same is true of my Twitter account. Apparently my fame proceeds me.)

  12. adnim

    I had a look once

    and saw nothing of interest.

  13. Mike Flugennock
    Coffee/keyboard

    2.5 b-b-b...b-b-BEEEEELION??

    SPPPLLLURRRTTTTHA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA, p'wuh, snurf.

    You bastards.

  14. LinkOfHyrule
    Paris Hilton

    Thanks for the heads up!

    Never even heard of them before! Thanks for the heads up though - I will remember to forget about their website as soon as possible!

    Paris because she has been known to pin up her cupcakes for all to see!

    1. Mike Flugennock

      Re: Thanks for the heads up!

      Never even heard of them before! Thanks for the heads up though - I will remember to forget about their website as soon as possible!

      D'ahh ha ha hah, nice one, man.

      Actually, I'd heard of them and seen their little link buttons lately on every other Web site I visit, encouraging me to "pin it", but I sussed it out pretty quickly and immediately thought "d'ahh, yeah, them -- another place to post stuff you find on the Internet. M'eh..."

      In fact, today was the first time ever that I actually visited their site, and only because I read this very article on The Reg, mentioning that they were seeking a 2.5 b-b-b-b-BEEEEELION GODDAMN DOLLAR valuation.

  15. Not_The_Droids
    Pint

    Saw an article that mentioned that Pinterest is something like 94% (or 97%?) female users. I know my wife, and a number of her friends, are users, but I don't know any guys that are. They pin pictures for one another, my wife gets artsy-craftsy ideas from there (the loft bed I built for my daughter came from a picture my wife saw on Pinterest). No real use for guys though.

  16. Matt Piechota

    "They pin pictures for one another, my wife gets artsy-craftsy ideas from there (the loft bed I built for my daughter came from a picture my wife saw on Pinterest). No real use for guys though."

    Seems that way. Lots of good recipes floating around in there too. Think a community-driven version of Marth Stewart's Living Show. Although my wife has a bunch of pinned motorcycle pictures as well (which is kinda awesome, really).

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Pinterest

    While I'm not denying that 99 point 9 recurring percent of the content on Pinterest consists of pictures of shoes [cupcakes come a distant second], I actually find The site quite useful.

    As an Art & Design type, I find it really handy as a quick one-click way of "storing for future reference" images I come across on the net, which might come in handy as inspiration or reference material at some point in the future. I use it in the same way as I use Delicious.com to do likewise with interesting webpages I happen across.

    I have no interest in the obligatory "social media" shite that is bolted on to Pinterest [and seemingly every other website out there these days], so I completely ignore that aspect of it. Social bollox duly ignored, Pinterest provides me with a handy online VRF or "visual reference file" [as us arty types call it], for nothing, so why not take advantage?

  18. This post has been deleted by its author

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Pinterest

    Heard about it, just went to see it and realised it was shit.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "it doesn't really have any costs either"

    From where may I get some of these magical free servers that run on thin air?

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