28 ms·

I've seen zero evidence that Pinterest can actually generate a profit. They do not make money from every product someone pins, and there's no reason to think th

I've seen zero evidence that Pinterest can actually generate a profit. They do not make money from every product someone pins, and there's no reason to think they ever will. The only thing I've seen so far is speculation and theoretical future business models that may or may not pan out. Github however is profitable and has a proven, functional business model. Github is absolutely not fighting a losing game, because they're providing a service companies obviously desperately want to outsource (thus the mass usage). Providing that service in a secure manner is worth a lot of money, as Github is protecting something extraordinarily valuable.

raarky 14y ago
have you heard of affiliate links? you can make a good deal of money from them
- adventureful 14y ago
  Yep, I have. And I'm sure Pinterest can build a couple hundred million dollar business around it. And that's a fine business, it's just not going to be a juggernaut.
taligent 14y ago
If you can't think of ways Pinterest can make money then you simply lack creativity. There are plenty.
- patrickod 14y ago
  Would you care to elaborate on how you think Pintrest will make a suitable amount of profit to fit its evaluation?
  - lachyg 14y ago
    Affiliate links could make Pinterest an insane amount of money. Did you know that when someone clicks an Amazon affiliate link, everything they buy in a 24 hour period the affiliate gets a cut of? There are a LOT of people using Pinterest, and a LOT of Amazon products on pinterest.
    - adventureful 14y ago
      An "insane amount of money" - care to be a lot more specific? That's about as vague and unsubstantiated as you could get. 1) The assumption is that the affiliate link model and market will scale to the size of Pinterest's eventual traffic maximums, that's a big assumption. 2) The assumption is that Amazon will want to allow Pinterest to suck profit out the door at that scale, instead of Amazon competing with Pinterest in one form or another instead, just like they're now competing with Groupon / Living Social (despite an investment in LS). 3) Amazon has a very long history of directly competing with companies that touch their platform. That's an extraordinarily shaky business model to say the least.
- adventureful 14y ago
  That sounds great. I'm sure if I can't think of ways that Twitter and Tumblr can make outsized profits from their massive respective user bases, then I'm not being creative either. Oh snap, some of the best business minds are already on the problem and they can't figure it out either. The same holds true for Pinterest, they're stuck in the same monetization box, and they're not going to suddenly show massive profitability either. It's blatantly obvious that platform will never monetize to the scale of their traffic.

raarky 14y ago

have you heard of affiliate links? you can make a good deal of money from them

adventureful 14y ago
Yep, I have. And I'm sure Pinterest can build a couple hundred million dollar business around it. And that's a fine business, it's just not going to be a juggernaut.

taligent 14y ago

If you can't think of ways Pinterest can make money then you simply lack creativity. There are plenty.

patrickod 14y ago
Would you care to elaborate on how you think Pintrest will make a suitable amount of profit to fit its evaluation?
- lachyg 14y ago
  Affiliate links could make Pinterest an insane amount of money. Did you know that when someone clicks an Amazon affiliate link, everything they buy in a 24 hour period the affiliate gets a cut of? There are a LOT of people using Pinterest, and a LOT of Amazon products on pinterest.
  - adventureful 14y ago
    An "insane amount of money" - care to be a lot more specific? That's about as vague and unsubstantiated as you could get. 1) The assumption is that the affiliate link model and market will scale to the size of Pinterest's eventual traffic maximums, that's a big assumption. 2) The assumption is that Amazon will want to allow Pinterest to suck profit out the door at that scale, instead of Amazon competing with Pinterest in one form or another instead, just like they're now competing with Groupon / Living Social (despite an investment in LS). 3) Amazon has a very long history of directly competing with companies that touch their platform. That's an extraordinarily shaky business model to say the least.
adventureful 14y ago
That sounds great. I'm sure if I can't think of ways that Twitter and Tumblr can make outsized profits from their massive respective user bases, then I'm not being creative either. Oh snap, some of the best business minds are already on the problem and they can't figure it out either. The same holds true for Pinterest, they're stuck in the same monetization box, and they're not going to suddenly show massive profitability either. It's blatantly obvious that platform will never monetize to the scale of their traffic.