San Francisco The deficient photo platform Pinterest is getting a new CEO with the ex-Google MANAGER Bill Ready. From Wednesday, Ready will take on the new role and company founder Ben Silbermann will move to the newly created position as Executive Chairman, Pinterest announced on Tuesday.
In a recent interview with Handelsblatt, Ready raved about the many untapped opportunities in online trading. At Google, he had prepared an initiative with which customers will be able to order products directly from the web search in the future. With the initiative, Google wants to challenge the online retailer Amazon.
At Pinterest, Ready is facing major challenges. The platform had built up a user base of more than 400 million people as a pinboard for photos. But the platform is still making losses. In the first quarter of this year alone, the net loss amounted to about five million dollars with a turnover of 575 million dollars.
Like other technology companies, Pinterest had been delisted from the stock market. However, the photo platform had hit it harder than many competitors. Compared to July of last year, the rating of Pinterest fell by about 75 percent. The market capitalization on Tuesday amounted to about $ 13 billion.
After careful consideration, he decided to hand over the chief position to Ready, Silbermann said: “Bill knows perfectly well that Pinterest is still at the beginning of its history. Over time, I decided that he would be an excellent CEO for our next chapter.” Silbermann co-founded Pinterest and has been CEO since the company’s inception.
Users should get more involved with products
Ready said that for him, Pinterest is “a positive place on the Internet where everyone can find inspiration for every area of their life”. In the next step, he will help users connect more with products via the platform. In other words, he wants to develop Pinterest more in the direction of online trading. “I firmly believe that Pinterest has the potential to become a 100-year-old company,” Ready said.
Two years ago, Pinterest had already entered into a partnership with the online retailer Shopify, so that users can buy products whose images they share or like directly. Last month, Pinterest acquired an AI startup that specializes in buying fashion products.
Ready is considered an experienced tech manager. Before joining Google, he was head of operations at the payment service Paypal and previously CEO of the payment platform Venmo. Last year, Paypal explored a possible takeover of Pinterest. At that time, a purchase price of 45 billion dollars was in the room. Ultimately, however, the purchase was never made.
Analyst Mark Shmulik at investment bank Bernstein said: “With Ready leaving an important position at Google, he should be determined to lead Pinterest into the promised land of online commerce.” Pinterest has been under a lot of pressure lately. “Tech investors prefer profit over growth. A new focus on online trading is the right step,“ said Shmulik.
