Pinterest Is Now the Hot Spot for Gen Z Guys… Unfortunately, None of Them Have Any Money

“Pinterest: where growth means more testosterone and fewer Benjamins.”

In the weeks leading up to earnings, Pinterest was on a full-blown press tour, shouting from every rooftop that it had discovered an untapped goldmine: guys.

Apparently, men are flocking to Pinterest in record numbers… and not just to research grill setups or midlife crisis motorcycles. According to Pinterest’s own data, these new male users (mostly Gen Z) are busy pinning everything from microneedling facials to League of Legends cosplay to “daddy and son” content (which, we’ll assume for everyone's sake, is parenting-related).

Pinterest even rolled out something called the “Pinterest Man” hub, which to me sounds like either a bold audience segmentation strategy or a failed Gillette ad campaign. The point was clear: Pinterest is no longer just for boho weddings and banana bread recipes… it’s rebranding as a haven for modern, moisturized men. And to be fair, the numbers seemed promising: over 171 million male users, which now make up more than a third of the platform’s 578 million global monthly active users.

(Source: MediaWeek)

But while Pinterest was busy gloating about how men were finally discovering that they, too, can make vision boards, Wall Street was quietly loading the “Sell” button. And oh boy, did they smash it. After posting second-quarter results that were just enough to earn a polite golf clap (but not nearly strong enough to justify all the pre-earnings “my man Pinterest is HIM” energy) the stock promptly dropped over 11% in after-hours trading (only down 8% today). Honestly, that might be a generous reaction given what actually went down.

Let’s start with the so-called “good” news. Revenue came in at $998 million, which technically beat expectations. That's a solid 17% jump from last year. And net income? Up to $38.76 million from a measly $8.9 million a year ago. Not bad, right? Well… about that. Earnings per share missed expectations at $0.33 (Wall Street wanted $0.35). Which doesn’t sound like a big deal until you realize we’re in a high-stakes earnings season where Meta, Reddit, and Google just pulled up in Rolls Royces, and Pinterest is over here driving a 2013 Dodge Charger with a cracked taillight.

And then came the real “swimming naked in the pool moment” that really exposed Pinterest. U.S. and Canadian user growth was flat. Like flat as the state of Illinois. As in, 102 million users last quarter... and still 102 million this quarter. That means the platform added zero new users in the only market that actually makes them real money. And just to pour sea salt spray into the wound, the platform’s ad pricing fell 25% year-over-year. Why? Because most of the new growth is coming from international markets, where ad prices are, let’s just say, more “dollar store” than “Nordstrom.”

So essentially, Pinterest is attracting a bunch of users in regions where advertisers pay less… and losing momentum where the cash actually comes from. It’s like opening a Michelin-star sushi restaurant in Manhattan and realizing all your customers only want $9.99 California rolls from Kroger in Ohio.

Pinterest, of course, tried to distract investors with a diversion. CEO Bill Ready said he's never been more confident in the platform, citing the growing Gen Z base (who now make up over half the users) and the adoption of their AI-powered Performance+ ad suite. That tool supposedly cuts campaign creation time in half, which sounds amazing, except… advertisers still aren’t showing up like Pinterest hoped. CFO Julia Donnelly also noted that some Asian e-commerce companies had pulled back on U.S. ad spending due to a change in trade policy. Which is finance-speak for: “We got blindsided by a loophole closure, and now we’re trying to keep it together.”

To be fair, the company did offer a semi-decent forecast for Q3… revenue projected between $1.03 and $1.05 billion, which edges past analyst expectations. But in the land of tech stocks, “not sucking” isn’t the same as “killing it.” As eMarketer analyst Jeremy Goldman put it, even a tiny gap between hype and reality is enough to send a stock tumbling. (That sound you hear is Pinterest’s PR team crying into their mood boards.)

This comes down to a classic case of overpromising and underdelivering. Pinterest played the role of the guy who shows up to a date talking about how he “works in finance,” but conveniently forgets to mention that he’s a bank teller who works for $16 an hour (without benefits).

So, to recap: Pinterest hyped up its new male audience, turned Gen Z into half its user base, launched an AI ad tool, and still managed to miss profit targets, stall out in North America, and piss off investors enough to tank the stock. Goes to show that sometimes saying nothing is the best thing you can do. Maybe next quarter they’ll find a way to monetize microneedling and jorts. Until then, Wall Street’s not exactly pinning their hopes on this one.

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News holds positions in Meta and Google as mentioned in the article.