Pinterest网站试水商业化策略

    图片社交分享网站Pinterest最近频现大动作，相当引人注目。近几个月来，Pinterest大笔融资，招聘高管并积极向海外扩张，但是却迟迟未披露其营收策略。不过，这家初创公司最新的举动表明，该公司不仅十分认真地在考虑扩大业已十分庞大的用户群，而且还在试图解决其困扰已久的商业化问题。

    今年10月，Pinterest网站融资2.25亿美元，估值也一举达到了38亿美元。9月，Pinterest推出了“赞助商图钉”（promoted pins）活动的实验性版本（不产生营收）。Pinterest将赞助商的图钉（比如展示手工艺品、时尚或是食谱的图片）整合至用户主页上显示的常规内容中，以实现对品牌的推广。这是Pinterest第二次对其内容进行货币化的尝试。2012年，Pinterest曾与营销联盟工具Skimlinks合作，但由于营销联盟系统缺乏透明度，用户反馈并不好。这一次，Pinterest准备公开标明网站的盈利区域。

    自上周四起，Pinterest便开始对电子商务网站开发者们开放部分实时数据工具。这些工具可以让这些网站的营销人员了解自己产品的“图钉”图片的流行趋势，他们也可以使用这些数据，在自己的网站上向消费者展示这些热门的图钉图片。目前，Pinterest的合作商包括迪斯尼、兰登书屋、塔吉特、雀巢、沃尔玛和Zappos等知名品牌。Pinterest发言人罗瑞•鲁西奇在邮件中表示，与这些供应商合作的优势之一，就是在这些网站上营造一种无缝的用户体验。“当你在浏览网页时，可以直接为网站中的图片打上‘图钉’，而却丝毫不影响你的购物、阅读或网页浏览。”Pinterest将免费为开发者提供这些工具，而Pinterest网站合作伙伴营销主管史蒂夫•帕特里奇则对《华尔街日报》表示，此举“可以很好地展示Pinterest所作的工作。”

    Pinterest网站目前工作的主题似乎正是建立合作关系。11月6日，Pinterest宣布《旧金山纪事报》总裁、负责该报数字和营销业务的乔安妮•布拉德福德担任合作关系部门主管。布拉德福德将负责Pinterest与广告商的业务联络，建立“全球性商业与内容的合作关系”。《旧金山纪事报》发表声明称，布拉德福德计划与母公司赫斯特国际集团（Hearst Corp）密切合作，以建立其与Pinterest的内容合作关系。而一旦Pinterest网站启动广告销售业务，作为合作关系部门主管的布拉德福德也将领导Pinterest的广告销售团队。布拉德福德曾经在Yahoo!、迪蒙德传媒（Demand Media）以及微软公司的市场和销售部门任职，她的经验和技能将帮助Pinterest开发更加稳固的数字营收渠道。

    Digital scrapbooking site Pinterest is stepping into the spotlight in a big way. In recent months, the company has drawn attention through large funding efforts, high-level hires, and international expansion, but still has yet to reveal a proper revenue strategy. But the startup's recent actions signal not only that it is serious about growing its already impressive audience but also tackling that thorny monetization issue.

    Pinterest raised $225 million in October, valuing the company at $3.8 billion. In September, Pinterest also launched an experimental (i.e. non-revenue generating) version of its "promoted pins" campaign. Promoted pins will eventually advertise brands by incorporating company-sponsored pins -- images that display crafts, fashion, recipes, etc. --into the regular content that appears on a user's home page. This is Pinterest's second attempt at monetizing its content after an experiment in 2012 with affiliate link software Skimlinks. Then, users were upset by the lack of transparency in the affiliate links system. This time, Pinterest has plans to label more clearly which areas of the site are revenue-generating.

    As of Thursday, Pinterest also made available some of its real-time data software to developers who work for e-commerce sites. These tools will allow those sites' marketers to know which of their products' pins are trending, and they can use that data to display their popular pins to their customers on the partner's own site. So far, partners include such big names as Disney (DIS), Random House , Target (TGT), Nestlé, Wal-Mart (WMT), and Zappos. Pinterest spokeswoman Malorie Lucich said in an email that one benefit of these partnerships is a seamless user experience on the sites. "While you're browsing, you can pin directly from the site, so there's no need to interrupt your shopping, reading, or browsing." Pinterest is giving these tools away free to developers, but Pinterest's Steve Patrizi, head of partner marketing, told the Wall Street Journalthat for users, this move is "good exposure ... to see what Pinterest does."

    Building partnerships seems to be a current theme of Pinterest's. On Nov. 6, Pinterest announced that Joanne Bradford, San Francisco Chronicle president and overseer of its digital and marketing efforts, will join as head of partnerships. In her new position, she will be a liaison between Pinterest and advertisers, forging "both commercial and content partnerships globally." According to a statement from the Chronicle, Bradford already has plans to work closely with its parent company, Hearst Corp., to develop a content relationship between it and Pinterest. As head of partnerships, she'll lead Pinterest's sales team once the company starts selling advertising. She held previous positions in marketing and sales at Yahoo! (YHOO),

    Demand Media (DMD), and Microsoft (MSFT), so her skill set will be useful in helping Pinterest break into more established digital revenue channels.