Pinterest poaches Walmart's chief technology officer
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Walmart Chief Technology Officer Jeremy King is leaving the country’s largest retailer to join Pinterest as head of engineering, the social media company said Thursday. The job at Pinterest was previously held by Li Fan, who jettisoned off to a similar role at scooter upstart Lime in July.
Pinterest, which filed to go public in February, is looking to scale its ad business by connecting consumers with products sold at Target, or vacations in Italy, for example, through visual search discovery. Given how Pinterest executes these sales, King’s background in both engineering and products likely encouraged his hiring.
Pinterest is trying to monetize its 250 million-plus users ahead of its initial public offering. Some 97 percent of the top 1,000 most popular searches on Pinterest are non-branded, meaning someone who searches for “brown leather jacket” will see styles, but likely won’t be able to purchase the item. A tool called “Shop the Look” applies computer vision to find similar items for sale, and it’s an area King will likely tinker with upon his arrival at Pinterest.
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