Pinterest, fashion’s favorite online scrapbook, is boosting its machine learning and data science brainpower to help convert its devoted user base into dollars.
Michael Lopp, head of engineering at Pinterest, said in a blog post today that the company had acquired machine learning firm Kosei to “accelerate our work in discovery and monetization.”
The social network already uses machine learning in its advertising business to understand ad performance and predict what will be relevant to users.
Lopp said Kosei included “some of the best minds in machine learning and data science” and has been building a technology that “drives commerce by making highly personalized and powerful product recommendations.”
“As people use Pinterest to save and discover the things they want to do in the future, we have a unique and growing data set of more than 30 billion pins that will only get more powerful over time,” Lopp said. “With the addition of the Kosei team, we can supercharge our existing graph to help brands reach people at the right moments, and improve content for pinners.”