Bill Ready has spent years pushing to make Pinterest safer for young users, well before regulators began zeroing in on the issue. As governments and parents intensify scrutiny of social media’s impact on teens, that focus is starting to pay off for the company.
“We have long focused on creating a more positive platform; one centered on time well spent, not just time spent,” the CEO told analysts during Pinterest’s first-quarter earnings call yesterday (May 4). “That foundation is becoming even more relevant as the broader online ecosystem faces increasing scrutiny around youth mental health, well-being and online safety.”
Ready, who previously served as Google’s president of commerce, PayPal’s chief operating officer and Venmo’s CEO, became Pinterest’s top executive in 2022. Since then, he has steered the platform toward stricter protections for young users, including a 2023 policy that made accounts for users under 16 private by default.
When Pinterest introduced the change, “many people thought it would hurt our relationship with Gen Z,” Ready said. Instead, Gen Z has become the platform’s largest and fastest-growing audience, now accounting for more than half of users. At the end of the first quarter, Pinterest had 631 million monthly active users, up 11 percent from a year ago.
Investors responded positively. Pinterest’s stock rose 9 percent today after the company reported first-quarter revenue of $1 billion, an 18 percent increase that beat Wall Street estimates. The company posted a net loss of $73.5 million, but adjusted EBITDA reached $207 million, up 20 percent year over year and ahead of expectations.
A.I. has also played a role in the company’s growth. Ready credited ten consecutive months of “double-digit user growth” to improvements in personalization and content curation driven by A.I. Earlier this year, Pinterest announced plans to cut up to 15 percent of its workforce as part of a restructuring that shifts more resources toward A.I. development.
Even so, Ready has framed A.I. as a tool to reinforce, not undermine, user safety. After taking over as CEO, he pushed to ensure the technology would avoid amplifying harmful or triggering material and instead surface more constructive content. He has also urged other tech leaders to prioritize moderation, product design, transparency and protections for teens in their own A.I. efforts.
In a recent op-ed for Time Magazine, Ready praised Australia’s ban on social media use for children under 16—though Pinterest is exempt. “I believe if tech companies fail to prioritize youth safety, other governments should follow Australia’s lead,” he wrote, describing today’s youth as “living through the largest social experiment in history.” Other nations, including Austria, Denmark, France and the U.K., are considering similar country-wide regulations.
The push for tighter rules comes as major tech companies face growing legal and political pressure over their effects on young users. Earlier this year, Meta and Google were found negligent in a California case involving features linked to harm to a minor’s mental health, a ruling that could open the door to broader accountability for addictive design.
Pinterest has tried to position itself on the other side of that debate. The company has supported measures such as phone-free schools and age verification requirements in app stores.
“We’re seeing a clear trend where parents, policymakers and governments are raising the bar on online safety for young people,” Ready told analysts yesterday. “This is a conversation we have long pushed for—we believe social media companies should compete on their safety record, the same way car manufacturers compete on their safety ratings.”