Pinterest has long been a source of inspiration for shoppers, and it’s hoping AI (Artificial Intelligence) can help it monetize the shopping on its platform. On Friday, Pinterest announced plans to acquire THE YES, an “AI powered shopping platform for fashion.”
THE YES enables people to shop a personalized feed based on the user’s active input on brand, style, and size, it explained in today’s announcement, which included the following money shot: “THE YES’s brand relationships and shopping expertise can potentially be applied to other categories on Pinterest such as home, beauty and food.”
Once the deal is finalized, THE YES cofounder and CEO Julie Bornstein will report to Pinterest cofounder and CEO Ben Silbermann. Bornstein will lead shopping vision and strategy in a new strategic organization at Pinterest that will “help steer the evolution of features for Pinners and merchants on Pinterest.”
Silbermann said Pinterest’s vision was to make it simple to find the right products that are personalized for shoppers based on their taste and style.
In the months following the closing of the transaction, Pinterest plans to sunset the THE YES app and website to allow the merged teams to focus on technology integration and “evolve its shopping vision.”
Subject to the satisfaction customary closing conditions, the transaction is expected to close by the end of June. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
You can find the press release on the Pinterest website.
I’m afraid Pinterest is another Google.
You can pay to promote your stuff all day long.
There’s no proof real people are seeing it.
But the money goes away FAST.