Social networking site Pinterest bans affiliate links

Social networking site Pinterest has banned the use of affiliate links and redirects, according to VentureBeat, which broke the story on Thursday.
 
The news came as rumors did the rounds that Pinterest had plans to launch a buy button later this year, possibly in partnership with payment service Stripe. The company, however, denied it was blocking affiliates due to monetisation purposes.

Mediapost quoted a spokesperson of the company as saying that this was 100 per cent about the Pinner experience and ensuring relevant content on Pinterest. Mediapost, however, pointed out that Pinterest was, nevertheless, "aggressively pursuing various monetisation opportunities."

For instance, in 2013, Pinterest launched an ad format called Promoted pins.

In a statement, Pinterest said it had observed affiliate links and redirects causing irrelevant posts (Pins) to show in feeds as also broken links "and other spammy behavior." The company said it believed this change would enable it to keep the high bar of relevancy and quality Pinners expected from Pinterest.

According to the Wall Street Journal, it had been automatically removing affiliate links for years, but had allowed some exceptions that were "maintaining good quality."
 
"RewardStyle, an affiliate network that caters to the fashion industry and works with 9,000 bloggers, websites and other publishers, was among those that had been allowed to link, until yesterday," the Wall Street Journal wrote on Friday.
 
The report quoted a Pinterest spokesperson as saying that the company had noticed their Pinner behavior going downhill, which had led to slower delivery of Pins and less relevant Pins in people's home feeds.

Meanwhile, Mediapost reported that Pinterest was clearly cleaning up its own boards of third-party monetisation schemes so it could better pursue its own emerging models. In a deal the company announced recently with Apple, it would allow Pinterest mobile users install iOS apps directly within the Pinterest app without directing the user over to the App Store, clearing the way for Pinterest to follow every social network into the app-install ad game.
 
Pinterest's claims that its removal of affiliate links was focused solely on the user experience looked as hollow as similar claims by other social  networks in the backdrop of reports that Pinterest would be rolling out its own buy buttons for pins in coming months.

That, as also the App Pins rolled out last week, showed Pinterest's determination to focus users and power pinners on its own monetisation opportunities.