Pinterest Sees Solid User Growth in Q1

Pinterest has shared its latest performance update, showing a big increase in active users in Q1 2024, and a steady rise in revenue year-over-year.

Though costs are also rising at the app, and its quarterly performance is less impressive. Here’s a summary of the key points from Pinterest’s Q1 update.

First off, on users, Pinterest is now up to 518 million monthly actives, up from 498m in Q4.

The growth momentum here is significant, with the only down note, as it is with virtually all social apps at present, being that the vast majority of Pinterest’s growth is coming from lower revenue markets.

As you can see in the above chart, while Pinterest added 13 million more active users in the “Rest of World” category, its growth in the U.S. was minimal, while E.U. users increased by 5 million in the period.

Which is especially significant when you look at this chart:

Pinterest makes the vast majority of its income in the U.S., so ideally, it would want to see this market share increasing, with Europe coming in a distant second for intake. Growth in other regions bodes well for future opportunities, but for right now, that topline growth is a little deceiving in terms of driving immediate value for the business.

Which is also reflected in its revenue data:

As you can see, Pinterest brought in $740 million for the quarter, but only a tiny fraction of that came from outside the U.S. and Europe, and that share has actually declined quarter-over-quarter.

The bright spot is Europe, which saw a good relative increase in revenue intake, and year-over-year, the numbers are positive. But that slowdown in revenue growth is important to note.

Because there’s also this:

Pinterest’s costs are rising, with sales and marketing up 12% YoY in the quarter. That could also bode well for future potential, if those dollars are well spent. But I don’t know, I don’t think that Pinterest’s most recent advertising push, which clearly cost it some big dollars to produce, was worth the investment.

Still, Pinterest CEO Bill Ready says that the platform saw its fastest user and revenue growth since 2021 in the quarter, which he credits to its ongoing development efforts.

“Thanks to our investments in AI and shoppability, we’re driving even greater returns for advertisers and gaining access to performance budgets. We’re executing with tremendous clarity and focus, shipping new products and experiences that users want, and in doing so, we’re finding our best product market fit in years.”

But, I mean, that’s his job, to be the cheerleader in the earnings announcements, and I don’t know that I see as much to be excited about in these figures.

From a general user and advertiser perspective, however, more users equals more opportunities, and there definitely is potential in Pinterest to reach many target customers. The majority of Pinterest users come to the app in a shopping mindset, and new innovations like its body type matching for search results provide more ways to help people find what they’re looking for in the app.  

Add to that its evolving ad options, and there’s clearly potential there.

I’m just not sure that market analysts will be as excited about the overall figures this time around.