New Pinterest features encourage brands and creators to upload more videos

With each passing day, Pinterest and Instagram are looking more and more alike.

Shortly after going public, Pinterest has incorporated new features to make it easier for creators and brands to upload videos directly to the visual search engine. The company says they’ve observed a 31% increase in searches for “inspirational videos” since 2018 and that “Pinners are 54% more likely to say they’re inspired to action by videos on Pinterest compared to videos on other media platforms.”

As a result, Pinterest has introduced a new and improved video uploader, a video tab on business profiles that allow brands to feature all their videos in one place, an analytics tool to help businesses better understand and analyze their traffic and get insights into performance over time, and finally, Pinterest is allowing creators and businesses to schedule videos ahead of time with a new Pin Scheduler tool.

With these new features, the company is encouraging paying users to post actionable and inspirational how-to videos and tutorials tailored to Pinterest users. Because videos on Pinterest surface and resurface over time, the company explained, videos uploaded directly to Pinterest will have a longer shelf life and, in theory, more engagement than if posted to other platforms.

The brand is hopeful new tools intended to support brands and businesses will increase engagement and ad revenue on the platform.

Now a public company, Pinterest has its work cut out for it. Instagram, once just a photo-sharing application, is making it easier for its user to make purchases directly on its app. The Facebook-owned business introduced “Checkout with Instagram” earlier this year, allowing users who tap its product tags on shopping posts to buy items without leaving the app. Pinterest, for its part, introduced features to facilitate in-app shopping late last year.

In order to simplify the in-app shopping experience, Pinterest rebuilt the infrastructure behind its product pins to include up-to-date pricing and stock information, links that take pinners to the retailer’s website and a new “Products like this” category under each fashion and home decor pin.

According to TechCrunch’s Josh Constine, Instagram is also toying with the idea of launching a Pinterest-like public content curation feature called “Collections.”