Pinterest is no longer using Skimlinks, the company that provided a way to monetize affiliate links and actually make some money.
CEO Ben Silbermann got in touch with Josh Davis of LL Social, the site that spread news of Pinterest’s use of Skimlinks’ affiliate links. Of their conversation, Davis writes that Silberman…”indicated that the use of Skimlinks was a test, not a business plan, and that Pinterest had stopped using Skimlinks a week before I wrote the original story on the subject.”
So if Pinterest had already stopped working with Skimlinks a week before this story came out, why did Skimlinks CEO Alicia Navarro go into depth about Pinterest’s use of affiliate links? Here’s a quote from the original story:
With respect to FTC rules on disclosure of affiliate links, the law is that any content creator that is *endorsing* or *recommending* something and obtaining financial benefit as a result of this endorsement, needs to disclose it. In this case, Pinterest are not pushing people to buy something because they get paid for it, they provide a platform that drives traffic to retailers and they are being rewarded for providing that service.
Pinterest also added a new question to its help page about how the company makes money. In short, Pinterest doesn’t make any money, nor is it trying to right now. It is only focused on growing the site right now, and is taking investments from entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.
“We’ve tested a few different approaches to making money such as affiliate links. We might also try adding advertisements, but we haven’t done this yet. Even though making money isn’t our top priority right now, it is a long term goal. After all, we want Pinterest to be here to stay!”
Image courtesy of Shutterstock.
