Pinterest and Monetization (via FastCompany) →

An interesting insight around Pinterest’s future possible monetization strategies by Jeremy Levine at Bessemer.  He analogizes to Google’s primary use as strictly a research/information service but its extremely successful monetization of those less frequent commercially-oriented searches:

“Ninety-five percent of the time we use Google, we’re doing things that are completely unmonetizable. If I Google you, for example, I’m not doing anything that’s going to lead to a purchase. So most of the time, it’s about research and information.”

“But that’s fine. Google serves all those needs. Because if it didn’t, we would get in the habit of searching somewhere else. But in the 5% of instances, where we’re searching for something commercial, an airline ticket or a Valentine’s Day present, for example, Google monetizes the heck out of those opportunities, and their business model works incredibly well. Those searches are monetized so well that Google’s more than happy to play a public service roll the other 95% of the time to help us find the information we’re looking for.”