Pinterest is placing search at the center of its growth plan. In an interview with Business Insider, CEO Bill Ready said the company is betting its future on a visual, intent-driven search model, not on competing with TikTok-style feeds. He told Business Insider that when he stepped in as CEO in 2022, he “didn’t think the world needed a fourth or fifth best TikTok.” This perspective pushed Pinterest to shift away from short-form video and livestream shopping efforts that many platforms chased at the time.

Now, the company is leaning heavily into search. Ready told Business Insider that “search is the core of the business,” and Pinterest’s product direction, ad strategy, and user experience have all been built around this view.

Pinterest’s recent numbers reinforce why this shift matters. The company reported 17% year-over-year revenue growth in the third quarter.  Pinterest has grown for nine consecutive quarters and reports 600 million monthly active users. Pinterest also says that around two-thirds of activity on the platform comes from search.

A search strategy shaped by younger users

Ready pointed to Gen Z’s behavior as one of the reasons Pinterest is investing so heavily in search. More than half of the platform’s users are now Gen Z, he told Business Insider.  According to Adobe, 47% of Gen Z respondents said they used Pinterest for search.

Pinterest’s pitch revolves around user intent. People typically arrive searching for ideas, inspiration, or products rather than scrolling through entertainment. Ready told Business Insider that this intent-driven behavior is a key reason the platform has gained traction with younger users.

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The company has been building toward that. Under Ready’s leadership, Pinterest has rolled out updated search features and AI tools that surface results based on a user’s preferences, including visual traits such as body type or hair pattern. The platform has also expanded visual search, allowing users to click items inside an image and see similar or exact product matches. At the launch of this feature, Dana Cho, Pinterest VP of Design said the company is not just “delivering search results—we're curating a personalised journey of discovery that empowers individuals to find their unique style, and shop it too."

Pinterest wants a position in competition Search space 

Pinterest’s stronger push into search comes at a time when the search space is shifting. Google still dominates general search globally and continues to serve the vast majority of search queries, but other players are becoming part of the conversation.

AI search tools such as ChatGPT and Perplexity have gained attention for answering questions in natural language. Other platforms like TikTok and Reddit have also become places people turn to when they want quick answers, product recommendations, or community-driven suggestions. Reddit is already betting on making the platform a go-to search engine. 

However, none of these tools comes close to the scale of Google today, but they show that people are increasingly open to finding information in different ways. Report in May showed that ChatGPT dominated the AI search with an 80% traffic share. 

This creates an opening for platforms that specialize in specific kinds of search. Pinterest sits in the visual category, where people use images to plan and compare ideas. Ready told Business Insider that the platform is focused on strengthening this visual niche rather than competing head-to-head with general-purpose search engines. These features sit in a category that Google, TikTok, and several startups are also pursuing, which puts Pinterest in a broader race to shape how visual search influences shopping.

Search connects directly to Pinterest’s advertising model

Pinterest’s entire ad strategy relies on what people search for. Ready told Business Insider that search results on Pinterest are “highly commercial in nature,” which shapes how advertisers reach users. Lower-funnel ads that drive purchases account for two-thirds of the business. That aligns with what analysts are seeing. Forrester’s Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf told Business Insider that search behaviors provide strong signals about user intent, which can help advertisers reach people who already know what they want.

Pinterest has also been investing more in shopping tools. The company recently introduced an AI shopping assistant that lets users browse, or ask product-related questions through voice or text.

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