[metafour]

I do not understand how the company is being valued at 2.5B. It doesn't look like even the business accounts at Pinterest have any type of fee associated with them.

How do they make money? Or is this valuation most likely based on the possibility of making money down the line?

EDIT:

According to this post, http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5254498, it seems like it is based primarily on potential revenue from data mining.

[phil]

Pinning indicates purchasing intent, and mediating purchasing intent is the most lucrative thing anybody has ever found to do with the web (search advertising being the all time greatest example).

[mikeryan]

Not being snarky but is there a profitable website who's primary source of revenue is based on data mined from their users?

I keep hearing about this "data mining" revenue stream but can't think of a place where its worked. That being said Pinterest seems like one place where it might.

[jonknee]

Google? Targeting interests is a solved problem.

[dylangs1030]

They said the same thing about Instagram when it was purchased by Facebook for $1 billion. I'm starting to think that's not a good metric.

[winterchil]

It depends on your criteria. Many people on here like to discuss sustainable businesses. Being acquired prior to reaching profitability is obviously a huge hit for the entrepreneurs, but it's irrelevant to the other conversation.

[mrtron]

I think the promoted items model like twitter's business model suits them quite well.