Pinterest (PINS.US) has encountered difficulties in monetizing advertisements and has considered spending billions of dollars to acquire a technology company.

The ad monetization anxiety of social photo giant Pinterest (PINS.US) has surfaced. According to reports, this platform known for its waterfall visual content has been planning to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to acquire an advertising technology company earlier this year, attempting to break through the bottleneck of advertising revenue growth. Informed sources revealed that the related proposal was first put on the agenda as early as January this year, and since the last quarter of last year, Pinterest has quietly begun testing advertising sales partnerships with Index Exchange and Criteo (CRTO.US). Facing media inquiries, a company spokesperson played the political game, saying, "Although we have not formally launched a takeover bid, we have always been exploring innovative paths to create value for advertisers, including deepening cooperation with technology-based advertising partners." This statement echoes the revelations of a former corporate development director - Kamran Anzari, who managed Pinterest's strategic mergers and acquisitions from 2015 to 2018 and admitted that the team did evaluate advertising technology targets, but was never able to lock in an ideal one. Going back to 2017-2018, Pinterest first tried collaborating with two advertising technology companies to sell ad space, but the outcome was full of bitterness: not only did they contribute very little revenue, but there were also embarrassing scenes of poor ad quality and brands being forced to "sell visual assets cheaply." Anzari mentioned growth paths of industry giants in the interview, hinting that Meta (META.US) and Alphabet Inc. Class C (GOOGL.US) have built moats through large-scale acquisitions, expressing regret for Pinterest missing the opportunity. It is worth noting that Pinterest is actively scouting for key positions, including a Vice President of Programmatic Advertising and a Director of Mergers and Acquisitions. These personnel movements are interpreted as a prelude to an upgrade in advertising strategy: on one hand, enhancing ad matching efficiency through technology-driven methods, and on the other hand, maintaining sensitivity to acquisition opportunities. This battle over advertising technology reflects the difficult search for social media platforms in monetizing traffic. When the advantage of visual content faces commercial challenges, whether Pinterest can find a balance between maintaining user experience and pursuing growth will be the key battle determining its valuation space.