After a particularly poor performance in Q4 earnings, Pinterest CEO Bill Ready tried to compare the digital pinboarding site favorably to the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT.
Trying to highlight its potential as a unique search destination, Ready claimed that the site sees a higher volume of searches than ChatGPT. According to third-party data, ChatGPT sees 75 billion searches per month, while Pinterest sees 80 billion searches and generates 1.7 billion monthly clicks, he said.
“That makes us one of the largest search destinations in the world. And importantly, more than half of those searches are commercial in nature, compared to, I think…about 2% [of ChatGPT searches]”, added Etoimos.
Pinterest in the fourth quarter missed expectations for both revenue and earnings per share, reporting revenue of $1.32 billion versus expectations of $1.33 billion and earnings per share of 67 cents, compared with forecasts of 69 cents. It also forecast first-quarter 2026 sales to be between $951 million and $971 million, down from expectations of $980 million.
The company blamed its shortfall on larger advertisers pulling back on spending, particularly in Europe, and a new furniture tariff implemented in October that caused problems in the home category. It said these trends could worsen in the first quarter.
Surprisingly, Pinterest lost profits despite a faster-than-expected user base. The company said monthly active users rose 12% year-over-year to 619 million, when Wall Street had forecast 613 million users.
Shares it fell 20% on after hours transactions.
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Pinterest has long struggled to translate its platform’s high usage into ad dollars, as its users often go to Pinterest to design and dream, not shop and buy. This challenge could become even more acute in the age of artificial intelligence, especially if advertisers shift their dollars to platforms where purchase intent is clearer — such as chatbot requests that ask for product recommendations.
When asked how Pinterest will drive the shift toward AI-powered shopping, Ready pointed to the company’s visual search, discovery and personalization capabilities, which he said will direct users to relevant products when they open the app.
“We’re helping them complete those commerce journeys without having to type a single prompt,” he said, also noting that Pinterest had benefited from an easier shopping flow that came from its partnership with Amazon. He said customers don’t yet seem ready to let an AI make a purchase for them, but said Pinterest would be ready when that time comes.
“This is actually going to be one of the easiest parts of the trade trip to solve,” he claimed.
