Social media ‘pinboard’ Pinterest has won $100m (£63m) in funding from Japanese internet retailing giant Rakuten and existing investors.
Rakuten, one of the world’s top 10 internet companies said the money would be used to improve Pinterest’s service and expand its user base.
Analysts subsequently put a value on the two-year-old company of $1-1.5bn.
Pinterest also allows users to share pictures, by offering what it calls a “virtual pinboard”, allowing users to post pictures and other content onto a personalised profile.
Pinterest has grown rapidly and with 12 million users is now one of the most visited sites in the US.
Rakuten’s flagship B2B2C (business-to-business-to-consumer) model e-commerce site Rakuten Ichiba is the largest e-commerce site in Japan and among the world’s largest by sales.
Its global presence has been reinforced through the acquisitions of leading online marketplaces Buy.com (US), Priceminister (France), Ikeda (now Rakuten Brasil), Tradoria (now Rakuten Deutschland) and Play.com (UK), and investments in Ozon.ru and AHA Life.
Hiroshi Mikitani, CEO at rakuten, said: “While some may see e-commerce as a straightforward vending machine-like experience, we believe it is a living process where both retailers and consumers can communicate, discover, and curate to make the experience more entertaining. We see tremendous synergies between Pinterest’s vision and Rakuten’s model for e-commerce. Rakuten looks forward to introducing Pinterest to the Japanese market as well as other markets around the world.”