Pinterest lands billionaire backer

Hiroshi Mikitani is a self-made billionaire in the world of online retail (he is CEO of Rakuten, which is often termed the Amazon of Japan), and he recently was a part of a $100 million round of funding for Pinterest, the growing social media sharing site.

Forbes has an in-depth interview with Mikitani that is filled with his perspective on Pinterest and why it’s was so attractive to him. A portion is excerpted below, but I’d encourage you to read the whole Forbes interview when you have some free time. It’s quite Pinteresting.

“Pinterest is not that popular in Japan yet, but through my network, from the early stages I knew about Pinterest. I have been following them, I use it, and started to realize this is a totally different social media. It’s difficult to generalize social media. Pinterest and Facebook are very different.”

Looking for more on Pinterest? The Spark Report has you covered. Also, my apologies for that terrible pun.

Categorized | Media, Social Media

About the author:

Luke Trayser - who has written 46 posts on The Spark Report.

Luke peaked as a writer at age 10, when he had a Christmas poem published in the local paper. But he still loves to write, and got started after college as a sports blogger, followed by an internship at a Chicago newspaper called The Printed Blog. In May of 2009, he took a job at DC Interactive Group. Luke writes for various blogs, sends eblasts to keep readers in the loop, edits, and cultivates client relationships. He does this using a dry, sarcastic wit, which he developed to cope with his middle name (Norman) and facial abnormalities (numerous). He hails from Crystal Lake, IL.

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