Pinterest may be going places with new Place Pins

SAN FRANCISCO -- Pinterest has launched Place Pins, places of interest that users can display on maps to help plan trips and create guides to favorite haunts.

Pinterest Chief Executive Ben Silbermann made the announcement at event Wednesday night at the company’s San Francisco headquarters.

He said Pinterest users already create 1.5 million destinations each day for a total of about 750 million.

Place Pins can be saved with a location on a map, making it simple to keep track of the places you want to go, whether it’s a wine bar in Napa Valley or a bed and breakfast in Umbria. With a couple of clicks, you can also share your Place Pin boards with friends, the company said.

The new feature is part of Pinterest’s philosophy of getting people to explore the world “and do things you love,” Silbermann said. It’s launching on Android and iOS at the same time as on the Web, he said.

The maps were built with the assistance of Foursquare, Stamen and MapBox. Other companies such as TripAdvisor are providing data that shows up on the pins.

Pinterest, which was valued at $3.8 billion in a recent funding round despite having no revenue, could be a growing threat to technology giants such as Google, not just for people’s attention but for advertising and commerce dollars.

The main threat is Pinterest’s growing presence on mobile. More than three-quarters of its traffic now comes from mobile. If Place Pins catch on, people may use the pins to keep track of places when they are on the go, rather than other services.

The new feature might also be another potential source of revenue.

Right now Pinterest is experimenting with Promoted Pins, charging brands to place content on users’ “pinboards” much the way that Facebook and Twitter allow businesses to pay to put their messages inside streams of updates from friends.

Pinterest has emerged as the next big thing among privately held Internet companies after Twitter put on a successful initial public offering of stock this month.

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