Pinterest is stepping up its efforts to lure creators to its platform, and making its app a little more like TIkTok in the process. The company showed off a number of new creator-focused features Wednesday to mark its annual “Creator Festival” event.
The changes include a redesigned home feed that separates the app into two tabs: “Browse,” which features a familiar grid of Pins, and “Watch” a new feed of full-screen vertical video that looks a lot like TikTok.
But instead of viral dances and catchy music, Pinterest’s Watch section is an endless feed of “Idea Pins,” the Stories-like feature the company launched earlier this year. Idea Pins allow creators to publish the kind of first-person video with narration or text overlays that you might find on platforms like TikTok. The feature has been central to the company’s creator-focused initiatives, though the company has been slower to embrace influencers than some competing platforms.
But with the new “Watch” feed, Idea Pins are moving front and center within the app, and will be served up to users in a swipeable, TikTok-like format. And, after initially limiting the format to a small group of vetted creators, Pinterest is adding features it hopes will spur more users to create Idea Pins of their own. A new “Takes” feature will allow users to riff off of other creators’ Idea Pins, similar to the way creators may remix or respond to each other’s TikToks.
While TikTok may not be the platform most associated with creators, the company has been steadily ramping up its efforts to engage with more influential users. In addition to creator profiles and Idea Pins, the company also launched a $500,000 creator fund to provide direct financial support to creators from underrepresented backgrounds. And the company introduced dedicated monetization features to help creators make money via brand partnerships.
