Pinterest is a virtual bulletin board platform, with users decorating their boards with pictures showcasing interests in a variety of areas, including food, fashion and travel. It boasts more than 250 million monthly active users, with most of those "pinners" outside the United States.
Pinterest sees itself as being at the crossroads of social networking and online search, with users consulting it when seeking out products or services. The eight-year-old company seems to have avoided vexations that internet titans such as Facebook and Twitter have experienced regarding hateful or abusive content.
Pinterest brings in money from playing a role in online shopping and from advertising, but has not publicly shared details regarding how well those efforts have been paying off. The company pushes hard into e-commerce by enabling people to use smartphones to identify products they might wish to pursue.