How Pinterest Compares to Other Social Networks Pre-IPO

Pinterest announced the price range for its long-awaited initial public offering on Monday morning. The social media company, slated for a public trading debut next week, plans to sell 75,000,000 shares at a price of $15 to $17. At this price range, Pinterest would be valued between $10 and $11.3 billion, surprisingly lower than the $12.3 billion valuation it had when it last raised capital as a private company in 2017. It would also be less than half the valuation that Snap was given in its much-hyped IPO in 2017, despite the fact that Pinterest has more users and is closer to profitability than Snap was ahead of its public trading debut in March 2017.

As the following chart illustrates, Pinterest generated $756 million in revenue last year, posting a net loss of $63 million. In the year leading up to Snap’s $24 billion IPO, its revenue and net loss amounted to $405 and -$515, respectively. Snap had 158 million daily active users by the time it went public, while Pinterest had 265 million monthly active users at the end of 2018. Pinterest also compares favorably to Twitter, which went public in November 2013 at a $14 billion valuation with less to show for than Pinterest has now.