Pinterest debuts on Wall Street

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We will now know if this positioning is enough to avoid the curse of social media companies that have become public.

Pinterest, a social platform dedicated to creating bookmarks on the Web, began trading at $ 23.75 one of its Wall Street debut Thursday, an increase of 25% over the price of its introduction on the stock exchange of 19 dollars.

At the price of its IPO, Pinterest was worth $ 12.66 billion, or about half of Twitter (tWTR) and slightly less than Snapchat's parent company, Break (BREAK). Both companies can also serve as an edifying story for Pinterest.

In August 2017, Twitter was lower than the price of its IPO less than two years after its publication. Snap fell below the price of its IPO after just four months. Investors fear slower growth and sluggish audience size Facebook (FB), which measures its user base in billions.

In its IPO prospectus, Pinterest said that it now had more than 250 million active users a month, less than the 321 million monthly Twitter users and at hardly a tenth of the Facebook audience. Unlike Facebook, Snap and Twitter, Pinterest has chosen not to disclose its number of daily active users and stated that it "does not provide that most of our users" will use the service daily.

"I think we have convincing arguments to assert that it's not a social media company," said Matthew Kennedy, an analyst at Renaissance Capital, which manages the funds traded in the United States. scholarship focused on IPOs. But he says investors will nevertheless judge the company on "the same things that other social media companies have to do."

The shortlist, Kennedy said, includes evidence that she can grow her user base, earn more and more money from these users, and "in the process, be profitable".

At least on the last point, Pinterest is better off than some of its rivals when they became public. The company generated revenues of more than $ 750 million in 2018, an increase of 60% over the previous year, while reducing losses to $ 63 million. Snap, in comparison, reported losing $ 515 million in the year prior to its IPO.

The anti-Facebook: inside the slow and slow climb of Pinterest

Its financial strength is testimony to the management of Pinterest. Under Silbermann's leadership, Pinterest has chosen to move more slowly and more deliberately, contrasting with the faster pace of major competitors like Facebook. The company has resisted the idea of wasting money to solve its problems, has long debated product changes and has not been eager to copy features that allow large competitors to compete. achieve viral growth, according to former employees.

"This is not a quick move and a culture-type break," said Danny Karubian, partner at Valiant Capital, which led a $ 200 million fundraiser in 2013. Instead, he described the approach of management as "be very thoughtful and strategic every action you take."

Karubian told CNN Business this week that he thought Silbermann would "continue with this kind of philosophy and culture" after Pinterest's release.

Pinterest's initial pull on Wall Street can be seen as a hallmark of the growing list of tech unicorns that run to be made public. Uber, Slack and Postmates also filed documents to be made public.

Lyft (LYFT), which began trading on the Nasdaq at the end of March, has since been hammered by investors, in part because of concerns over its large losses. His action opened Wednesday at $ 56.50 action, more than 20% below his $ 72 introductory price.

Zoom, a videoconferencing company, shot up 80% in its public market debut on Thursday, after setting shares above the proposed $ 36 range on Wednesday. Unlike most other brand-name technology companies that became public this year, Zoom is profitable and continues to rapidly increase sales.

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