8 Highlights From Pinterest’s Q2 2019 Financial Results

Pinterest released its financial results for just the second time since its initial public offering April 18. Here are some highlights: 300 million Pinterest surpassed 300 million monthly active users globally during the second quarter of 2019, seeing that total grow 30% year-over-year. The company said it continues to focus on improving user experience, pointing to the second quarter’s improvements to search recommendations, increases in video content and emphasis on shoppable products. Big revenue bump Pinterest reported $261 million in revenue in the second quarter, up 62% compared with the year-ago period. The company said year-over-year growth was helped by Easter occurring later in the year in 2019. Revenue in the U.S. was $238 million, up 55% from the second quarter of 2018, driven by growth in small and midsized business advertisers, as well as advertisers in emerging verticals and consumer packaged goods. International revenue soared 199% year-over-year, to $24 million. ARPU Second-quarter global average revenue per user was $0.88, up from $0.69 in the year-ago quarter. Pinterest said increased advertising demand, from both new and existing advertisers, resulted in more ads served and higher prices for those ads. U.S. ARPU was $2.80, up 41% year-over-year, while international ARPU—which, Pinterest cautioned, is in its early stages—was $0.11, up 123%. eMarketer principal analyst Andrew Lipsman said in an email, “Pinterest’s blowout quarter on the top and bottom lines was especially important in light of its post-IPO stumble in its first quarterly earnings. It’s clear that Pinterest’s ad business continues to scale through strong user growth and ongoing ARPU momentum, not to mention some signs that the international business might finally be getting off the ground.” Big net loss Pinterest’s GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) net loss for the quarter was $1.16 billion, driven up by expenses related to its IPO. The company’s net loss in the second quarter of 2018 was $38 million. Going global Pinterest was serving ads in 19 countries at the end of the second quarter, up from 13 at the end of the first quarter of 2019. The new markets were Denmark, Finland, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland. The company also singled out Canada, saying that revenue from large advertisers in that country more than quadrupled year-over-year during the period. Pinterest said it is looking to replicate the approach it took in Canada in France and Germany. Video boom Pinterest said users re-Pin video at a rate 40% greater than static content, adding that video views in the second quarter exceeded the total for 2018. Shop, shop, shop Pinterest said the number of products from retailers on its platform was up 50% in the second quarter, driven by improvements in how it acquires Pin inventory. The number of product feeds ingested by Pinterest’s catalog manager is up by 2.5 times since that product’s debut in March. Tag up Pinterest said it improved advertisers’ ability to measure the performance of their campaigns by integrating the Pinterest Tag with Google Tag Manager and other tag-management and ecommerce platforms. The company said the number of tags added year-to-date is double the total for all of 2018. Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann said in a release revealing the company’s results, "We constantly aim to make Pinterest more personal, relevant and useful to our users. Our MAUs hit 300 million at the end of Q2 as we built and expanded products to support this vision. We also continued to grow and diversify our advertiser base and improve advertisers’ ability to measure the effectiveness of their ad spend. This is part of our larger and ongoing effort to create value for businesses on Pinterest." Chief financial officer Todd Morgenfeld added, "Q2 revenue grew 62% year-over-year to $261 million. The momentum we have seen over the past several quarters continued as more advertisers recognize the power of our platform to reach consumers. We remain encouraged by trends in U.S. ARPU and by user growth in international markets. While our net margin declined due to RSU expense (restricted stock units) related to our IPO, our strong revenue performance and focus on execution allowed us to expand adjusted EBITDA margins by 10 percentage points year-over-year."