????在今年的《財富》科技頭腦風暴大會上，《財富》撰稿人艾琳·格里菲斯向Pinterest首席執行官本·西爾伯曼提的第一個問題非常簡單。

????Pinterest是社交網絡嗎？

????西爾伯曼猶豫了一下，抬頭看了看熾熱的舞臺燈，然后做出了回答。他告訴現場觀眾，Pinterest是一個“點子目錄”，“和社交網絡有非常大的差異”。他說，二者的目標不同——人們把照片上傳到社交網站上是為了讓別人喜歡這些照片；在Pinterest，這樣做則是為自己服務。

????西爾伯曼說：“我們希望別人看到我們網站上的好點子后將其付諸實踐。”他把Pinterest比作一本針對用戶的 “手工編撰目錄”。

????這就解釋了該公司最近涉足電子商務的原因。這家初創企業坐擁巨額資金，最新的數字是110億美元，這讓它成為《財富》評選的十大獨角獸公司之一。Pinterest正在尋找值得夸耀的收入源，而最好的辦法就是推動這個“目錄”概念進一步商業化。

????西爾伯曼表示：“我們真的非常了解人們開始制定計劃時的情況”。（他還說，盡管女性在Pinterest的用戶中仍占多數，但男性用戶是增長最快的群體；國外用戶也是如此，40%的Pinterest用戶都在美國以外，而且這個數字還在上升。）

????不過，西爾伯曼承認，交易方面的工作尚未完成。他說：“這是個相當難的問題。”在Pinterest上購買產品或服務應當是個流暢的過程，“簡單、輕松而且愉快”。但和成千上萬的商家打交道可不是什么小事情。西爾伯曼說：“做好這件事需要時間。”Pinterest從去年夏天開始著手這方面的工作。

????西爾伯曼透露，目前Pinterest還沒有從自家網站上進行的交易中抽取費用。這項業務處于成長狀態。他說：“我們希望為產品和服務供應商建立一個平臺，幫助他們去[接觸]客戶。人們瀏覽我們網站的原因是他們希望從自己的生活中找到靈感。”那么Pinterest正通過其他途徑創收嗎，比如“推廣圖釘”（Promoted Pins）？西爾伯曼答道，他們正在這樣做。

????他說：“廣告這個詞帶有負面意味。許多廣告真的都很糟糕，很難看，有損受眾的體驗。我們希望“推廣圖釘”會讓用戶覺得這是他們想要的創意。”他指出，從商業角度講，“想投放廣告的人可以考慮的平臺有很多”，而Pinterest希望幫助他們更好地了解這個網站，以便他們為用戶創造出更好的東西。

????Pinterest的員工已經超過500人，而且這個數字仍在上升。在設法創收的同時，Pinterest想過IPO嗎？西爾伯曼說，沒有，“短期內我們沒有上市計劃。”他說，上市公司要有可預期的收入。而結論是，Pinterest不具備這個條件。

????西爾伯曼表示，眼下他們的首要任務是海外擴張，比如西歐、日本和巴西，讓用戶更好地進行發現，同時擴大收入源。

????不過，Pinterest已經做出了最簡單的決定，那就是要以圖像為主。西爾伯曼說：“再多技術也不會改變一個事實，那就是人通過視覺來處理信息。”（財富中文網）

????譯者：Charlie

????校對：詹妮

????Fortune writer Erin Griffith kicked off her interview with Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann by asking a very simple question.

????Is Pinterest a social network?

????Silbermann paused, glanced up at the hot stage lights, and responded.

????Pinterest is a “catalog of ideas,” he told attendees at this year’s Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference. “I think that’s a very different thing than a social network.” The objectives of the two are different, he said. On a social network, you upload photos for other people to like. Pinterest, on the other hand, is self-serving.

????“Our hope is that when we show you the right idea you go out and do that thing,” he said. He likened Pinterest to “a catalog that’s hand-picked” for his users.

????Which explains the company’s recent foray into “Buy” buttons. The highly-funded startup—$11 billion at last count, putting it in the top 10 on Fortune‘s Unicorn List—is in search of revenue worth crowing about. The best way to do it is to encourage the more commercial aspects of that catalog concept.

????“We have a really clear understanding when people begin to plan events,” Silbermann said. (He added that while the majority of his users remain women, men are its fastest-growing segment. As is international: 40% of Pinterest users live outside the U.S. and the number is growing.)

????But transactions are still a work in progress for the company, Silbermann allowed. “It’s a pretty hard problem,” he said. Buying a product or service through Pinterest should feel seamless—“easy and light and fun.” But working with “thousands” of merchants is no small undertaking. “It took time to do it right,” he said. Pinterest began working on the effort last summer.

????Today, Pinterest takes no cut of transactions it processes, Silbermann said. It’s in growth mode. “We want to create a platform for product and service providers to [reach] customers,” he said. “People go to Pinterest because they’re looking for inspiration from their life.”

????And as for Promoted Pins, the company’s other revenue-generating effort? It’s coming along, Silbermann said.

????“Advertising has a bad word associated with it,” he said. “A lot of ads really suck. They’re really ugly. They detract from the experience. You want Promoted Pins to feel like the ideas you want to make your own.”

????On the business side, “advertisers have a lot of platforms to think about,” he added. Pinterest wants to help them understand Pinterest better so that they create something better for users.

????With all of these revenue-generating efforts afoot, is Pinterest—more than 500 employees strong and still growing—thinking about an IPO? No, Silbermann said. “We don’t have any short-term plans to go public.” Public companies have predictable revenue, he said. The inference: Pinterest does not.

????For now, priorities are international expansion—western Europe, Japan, and Brazil, he said—improving discovery and building out the money machine.

????But the easiest decision for Pinterest is already made: making it image-focused. Said Silbermann: “No amount of technology is going to change the fact that people process information visually.”