Applications
Pinterest revenue chief Bill Watkins exits as ads and AI race accelerates
GREATER CHICAGO: Pinterest’s long-serving chief revenue officer Bill Watkins will step down at the end of the quarter, closing a 12-year run that tracked the platform’s transformation from a pre-revenue start-up into a global advertising business.
Watkins announced the move on LinkedIn, noting that when he joined the company in 2014 Pinterest had 200 employees, 60 million global users and no revenue. Today, he said, the platform has thousands of staff, around 600 million users and tens of thousands of advertisers that have invested billions of dollars.
The timing is notable. Watkins’ departure comes just over three weeks before Pinterest is due to report its fourth-quarter 2025 earnings on 12 February, a closely watched update after the previous quarter missed market expectations despite strong growth in monthly active users.
During his tenure, Watkins founded Pinterest’s Chicago office, led large customer sales in the west region and oversaw the commercial expansion that accompanied the company’s IPO in 2019. Under his watch, Pinterest expanded internationally, built out its advertising and programmatic offerings and, more recently, entered the AI-driven ad tools race with Performance plus, aimed at extracting more revenue from small and medium-sized businesses.
Watkins offered no clarity on his next role, but signalled a clear interest in artificial intelligence, describing it as transformative for advertising and marketing.
His exit follows a broader leadership reshuffle at Pinterest. Andréa Mallard, the company’s first chief marketing officer, left earlier this month and has since joined Microsoft AI as CMO. Her role at Pinterest has been filled by former Amazon executive Claudine Cheever. Separately, the company appointed former DoorDash CRO Lee Brown as its first chief business officer.
Applications
With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
