Pinterest TV Launch Focuses on Live Shopping with Creators

Pinterest is advancing its objective of becoming more than an image-sharing site by adding live shopping through an app called Pinterest TV that the company believes will help it become a creator destination. Pinterest TV will offer “a series of live, original and shoppable episodes featuring creators” streaming weekdays beginning November 8 on iOS and Android. Topics will span food, home, fashion and beauty. As part of the initiative, Pinterest is launching a virtual studio complete with producers who will help creators develop content, provide A/V support and become ready for live streaming.

TechCrunch says “this shift is a pivot Pinterest has been trying to make for many months,” opining that “as new social networks like TikTok are becoming the place where younger, Gen Z users are discovering ideas which then translate into online shopping purchases, Pinterest’s image pinboard experience has started to feel dated — like a holdover from another era of the web.”

The idea, TechCrunch explains, is “to create a new way for its users to become inspired — instead of just browsing images for products and ideas, as before, Pinterest TV allows the company to move further into video and the creator economy.” Instagram also recently moved from photo-sharing to embrace video.

Pinterest announced a video push in March. More recently a TikTok-like Watch tab was added, allowing users to vertically scroll through a video feed featuring creator content they could like, comment about and pin to their Pinterest boards.

“These videos are a newer type of content type which Pinterest calls ‘Idea Pins,’ a video-first feature that lets creators demonstrate some sort of idea or DIY — like cooking a recipe or doing a craft, for example,” TechCrunch writes. To fire-up creators, Pinterest last month announced a $20 million Creator Rewards fund.

To be successful, “Pinterest will need to be able to prove it’s worth creators’ time and effort, given the competition among social platforms for creator talent — not to mention the large creator funds being offered by the likes of Facebook, Instagram, Snap and YouTube as they try to combat the TikTok threat.”

Although Pinterest TV is initially available only by invitation, the company is making a sign-up form available for those who would like to explore creating for the new live-streaming feature.

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