Pinterest Inc Q1 2019 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Doug Anmuth - JPMorgan - Analyst : I was hoping you guys could talk a little bit about the progress and pace of the international ad sales efforts? How should we think about the percentage of international MAUs that can be monetized through this year and next year? Thank you.

Question: Ross Sandler - Barclays Capital - Analyst : I guess since this is your first public call I wanted to ask a question just about the retail category. So you mentioned in the letter that advertisers can upload their product catalog using the API. I guess how widely adopted is that and how does retail marketing budgets change when one of your partners does upload their product catalog and starts advertising based on products, not based on their overall brand? Any color there would be helpful.

Question: Eric Sheridan - UBS - Analyst : Guys, as you continue to deepen the conversation with your advertiser clients, what are the biggest asks you hear from advertisers that are informing your product roadmap, the way in which you are going to take innovation on the platform over the next couple years? And what do you think those -- of the roadmap that you've laid out for people, what are you the most excited about that could change the arc of either engagement among users or advertising metrics that could lead to greater levels of budgets? Thanks so much.

Question: Mark Mahaney - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst : Two questions, please. Could you talk from a user engagement perspective, to the extent you are seeing category expansion? You've got four well-established verticals; are you seeing traction with some of the newer ones like finance or travel? without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. MAY 16, 2019 / 9:00PM, PINS.N - Q1 2019 Pinterest Inc Earnings Call And then secondly, on video ad format, as you make that more broadly available, have you already seen a reaction to that? Like you did that because you saw -- was it your guests or you saw a very strong buildup in demand for that? What do you think of the -- how quickly could that ramp? What do you think the impact of that is going to be potentially on spend, potentially on overall advertiser interest in the platform?

Question: Heath Terry - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : I was wondering if -- particularly with the discussion around e-commerce earlier -- if you could dig into a little bit for us what your primary technology priorities are, particularly with the recent hiring of Jeremy King to lead that effort for you. Sort of what you hope his first 100 days, first year look like for the Company?

Question: Justin Post - BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst : Maybe one question in two parts. First, just when you think about US users, what are some of the biggest initiatives to increase engagement with the site? And what are you measuring that you think is most important? Is it time spent? Frequency of interaction with content? How are you looking at that? And then second part is just, how do you feel about your ad loads currently? And how much room do you think you have to grow those over the next few years? Thank you.

Question: Colin Sebastian - Robert W. Baird - Analyst : The first paragraph of the business highlights you mentioned improvements to machine learning models. But I was hoping you could perhaps talk more about what's involved there and what you saw as the result. without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. MAY 16, 2019 / 9:00PM, PINS.N - Q1 2019 Pinterest Inc Earnings Call And then as a follow-up regarding the progress in self-serve and measurement tools, just hoping for more color on the time frame for when you anticipate these to become more broadly available. Thanks.

Question: Colin Sebastian - Robert W. Baird - Analyst : Self-serve and measurement tools.

Question: Stephen Ju - Credit Suisse - Analyst : So, one of the products that really caught our attention was visual search with the users being able to highlight things in images they are interested in and that I guess implicitly being a product search query. So, where are you in terms of driving consumer behavior to do just that? And on the without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. MAY 16, 2019 / 9:00PM, PINS.N - Q1 2019 Pinterest Inc Earnings Call advertiser side, the awareness and I guess the acceptance of this product as being something very similar to the ads that they're already buying on perhaps a search engine. Thanks.

Question: Mark May - Citi - Analyst : First, I think as you mentioned earlier, you were monetizing in seven international markets for all or part of last year, and then you launched six additional ones this quarter. I'm just curious of the international ad revenue in Q1 and the year-on-year growth which was substantial. How many countries are contributing meaningfully to that? I'm just trying to understand better how many countries today are contributing to your international ad revenue and to the growth. And then my follow-up would be -- you clearly have a pretty aggressive pipeline for introducing new enhancements to the ad platform from conversion optimization, video format, self-serve, etc., etc. If you had to choose one, which of these do you think has the potential to have the

Question: Mark May - Citi - Analyst : Is it possible to share with us how many advertisers you had in the quarter? And we obviously know Facebook has millions -- just to get a sense for how much of an opportunity that is?

Question: Mark Kelley - Nomura - Analyst : I kind of want to follow up on the international side. I know you talked about being able to have a better conversation with your advertiser partners as you launch into new geographies and it is a bit circular -- or you'll get more budget even in the US. I'm curious if you have any thoughts on to date when you've launched into a new geography how quickly does that conversation change? Do you need to be launched in a region for a bit of time before people start to think about spending with you or is just physically being there the most important part? And then I've got a follow-up after that. without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. MAY 16, 2019 / 9:00PM, PINS.N - Q1 2019 Pinterest Inc Earnings Call

Question: Mark Kelley - Nomura - Analyst : That's helpful, thanks. And curious, is there any way for us to think about ad spend from existing customers you had a year ago versus new ones? Thank you.

Question: Lloyd Walmsley - Deutsche Bank - Analyst : Was just wondering -- a couple, if I can, on the ad tech -- kind of where are you today in building out the key tools you need? And are there any big new ones we should just keep in mind on the horizon? And I guess more broadly, do you feel like you have the ad units generally figured out such that you can scale particularly internationally? Or are there other types of monetization you're working on that could unlock better monetization down the road? And then I guess a second one would just be as we think about the potential for use case or category expansion, are there any success stories you'd point to where something you did on the product side drove an unlock on the new category? Or -- and then as we look at user cohorts, do you see newer users using the product differently either across categories or functionality wise? Anything you can share there would be great. without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. MAY 16, 2019 / 9:00PM, PINS.N - Q1 2019 Pinterest Inc Earnings Call