Pinterest is supposed to be eyeing the acquisition of VSCO

The online pinboard site Pinterest is reportedly in talks to get VSCO, a photo editing and sharing app that you should remember for inspiring a teen subculture back in 2019. Negotiations are still ongoing, said two sources with knowledge of the matter The New York Times, and there is still no word on a possible price for the deal.

Neither Pinterest nor VSCO directly confirmed conversations about a possible acquisition. In a statement to the Times, VSCO spokeswoman Julie Inouye said the company does not discuss rumors and is “always meeting with different companies across the creative space at any time”.

However, the timing would make sense given Pinterest’s record fourth quarter of last year. The company saw an increase in the number of users and in the market value as the covid-19 blocks gave many people enough time to aimlessly browse social media. Pinterest supposedly added 100 million new users in 2020 and now has almost 460 million monthly active users In all world. According to the Times, Pinterest has a market capitalization of around $ 49 billion and expert project the company’s total revenue could grow by more than 48% in 2021.

At this point, it is in Pinterest’s interest to attack while the iron is hot and to focus on building its public perception, where it is arguably weaker. Even though many people are on the platform, you are more likely to find Pinterest’s very vocal haters than users singing their praises. And although I didn’t go to school in a hot minute, it wasn’t exactly the coolest place to be online at that time, and your image doesn’t seem to have changed much since then. Purchasing VSCO, a service that avoids traditional social media metrics such as “likes” and follower counts and is so popular with Generation Z that it spawned the eponymous meme “VSCO girl”, could inject a new life into the brand.

One thing that works against Pinterest is its supposedly lousy work history. Amid the company’s expansive growth in recent years, employees have complained about some toxic work environments, with Many women file lawsuits that have suffered racial discrimination. Former Pinterest COO Françoise Brougher abruptly stepped down last year with little explanation, after claiming that she was pressured to leave for complaining about gender discrimination and wage inequality among Pinterest’s bosses.