Amid disappointing earnings, Pinterest claims it sees more searches than ChatGPT

Source: TechCrunch

After a particularly poor performance on its fourth‑quarter earnings, Pinterest CEO Bill Ready tried to position the digital pin‑boarding site as a major search destination, even comparing it to the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT.

Search‑volume claim

Ready asserted that Pinterest sees larger search volume than ChatGPT. According to third‑party data, ChatGPT receives about 75 billion searches per month, while Pinterest registers 80 billion searches and generates 1.7 billion monthly clicks. He added that more than half of Pinterest’s searches are commercial in nature, versus roughly 2 % of ChatGPT searches, making Pinterest “one of the largest search destinations in the world.”

Earnings overview

• Revenue: $1.32 billion (expected $1.33 billion)
• Earnings per share: $0.67 (expected $0.69)
• Q4 2025 outlook: First‑quarter 2026 sales projected between $951 million and $971 million, below the $980 million consensus.

The shortfall was blamed on:

• Larger advertisers pulling back on spend, especially in Europe.
• A new furniture tariff introduced in October that hurt the home category.
• Anticipated continuation of these trends into Q1.

User growth

Despite the earnings miss, Pinterest’s user base grew faster than expected:

• Monthly active users: 619 million (up 12 % YoY), beating Wall Street’s forecast of 613 million.

Market reaction

Shares fell 20 % in after‑hours trading following the release of the results.

Advertising challenges in the AI era

Pinterest has historically struggled to convert high platform usage into ad revenue, as many users come to “plan and dream” rather than to shop. The rise of AI‑driven shopping could intensify this challenge if advertisers shift spend to platforms where purchase intent is clearer—such as chatbot interactions that request product recommendations.

When asked about navigating the shift toward AI‑powered shopping, Ready highlighted Pinterest’s visual search, discovery, and personalization features, which aim to surface relevant products without requiring users to type a prompt. He also noted the benefit of an easier checkout flow through Pinterest’s partnership with Amazon, while acknowledging that most customers are not yet ready to let an AI make purchases on their behalf.

“We’re helping them complete those commercial journeys without having to type in a single prompt,” Ready said.
“That’ll actually be one of the easiest parts of the commercial journey to solve.”