Following particularly weak fourth-quarter revenue, Pinterest CEO Bill Reddy sought to compare the digital pinboard site favorably to popular AI chatbot ChatGPT.
In an effort to highlight its potential as a unique search destination, Ready claimed that the site’s search volume is higher than ChatGPT. According to third-party data, ChatGPT has 75 billion searches per month, while Pinterest has 80 billion searches and generates 1.7 billion clicks per month.
“This 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 Reddy.
Pinterest missed expectations on both revenue and earnings per share in the fourth quarter, with revenue of $1.32 billion versus the expected $1.33 billion and earnings per share of 67 cents versus the expected 69 cents. The company also predicted sales for the first quarter of 2026 would be between $951 million and $971 million, lower than the forecast of $980 million.
The company blamed the shortfall on major advertisers cutting back on spending, particularly in Europe, and new furniture tariffs that took effect in October that caused problems within the home category. This trend is likely to worsen in the first quarter, it said.
Surprisingly, Pinterest missed out on revenue even though its user base was growing faster than expected. According to the company’s report, the number of monthly active users rose 12% year-on-year to 619 million, compared to Wall Street’s prediction of 613 million.
The stock price fell 20% in after-hours trading.
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Pinterest has long struggled to turn its platform’s high usage into advertising revenue, as users often go to Pinterest to plan and dream rather than shop and buy. This challenge could become even more acute in the AI era, especially as advertisers move their funds to platforms where purchase intent is more clear, such as chatbot requests for product recommendations.
When asked about how Pinterest will move toward AI-powered shopping, Ready cited the company’s visual search, discovery, and personalization features, which he said will provide users with the ability to show them relevant products when they open the app.
“We’re helping users complete these commercial journeys without ever having to type a single prompt,” he said, noting that Pinterest also benefits from checkout flows made easier by its partnership with Amazon. He said customers aren’t yet ready to allow AI to make purchases on their behalf, but Pinterest will be ready when the time comes.
“In fact, it will be one of the easiest parts of the commercial effort to solve,” he argued.
