news

CEO says Pinterest's growth strategy centers on ‘positivity' not ‘engagement via enragement'

Bill Ready, CEO of Pinterest, rings the opening bell at New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., May 15, 2024. 
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
  • Pinterest CEO Bill Ready told CNBC's Jim Cramer on Wednesday the company is attracting new users, especially those in Generation Z, by focusing on positive content.
  • "Gen Z will tell you one of the biggest reasons they come to Pinterest is they see it as an oasis away from the toxicity they experience elsewhere on social media," Ready said.

Pinterest CEO Bill Ready told CNBC's Jim Cramer on Wednesday the company is attracting new users, especially those in Generation Z, by focusing on positive content.

"When I came into Pinterest, one of the things I set out to do was prove a  business model for social media centered on positivity rather than engagement via enragement," Ready said. "Gen Z will tell you one of the biggest reasons they come to Pinterest is they see it as an oasis away from the toxicity they experience elsewhere on social media."

Pinterest has become more shopping focused over the last few years, Ready said, with platform users increasingly buying items rather than just looking. He said Pinterest recently surpassed 500 million monthly active users and that 40% are in the young Gen Z cohort.

Ready suggested that social media started to become more "negative and toxic" as platforms began to use artificial intelligence — which figured out that people spend more time looking at things that are "triggering." Like its peers, Pinterest uses AI to improve on its recommendation selections, Ready said.

He added the company uses the new technology to focus less on "view time maximization" and more on "positive outcomes," like helping shoppers find things they like and want to buy.

According to Ready, Pinterest is also different from other platforms because its users are more engaged than those in older generations. Usually, he said, social media sites attract their most engaged cohorts early on.

"Not only are we aging down, our most recent cohorts are nearly twice as engaged as cohorts from the years prior," he said. "We are finding our best product market fit in years, and it really is about the curation, the relevancy with AI, and the actionability on the platform and the positivity."

Sign up now for the CNBC Investing Club to follow Jim Cramer's every move in the market.

Disclaimer

Questions for Cramer?
Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBC

Want to take a deep dive into Cramer's world? Hit him up!
Mad Money Twitter - Jim Cramer Twitter - Facebook - Instagram

Questions, comments, suggestions for the "Mad Money" website? madcap@cnbc.com

Copyright CNBC
Contact Us