"We’re really excited to have the capacity to offer Pinterest to more people and if you’re a Pinner with friends who’ve been waiting on the sidelines, we hope you’ll let them know," said Pinterest in a statement. "Happy pinning to everyone!"
Rakuten, one of the largest internet companies in the world, bought a stake worth up to $100m in May this year, with plans to help Pinterest improve its service and expand the site’s community globally.
The partnership is helping the company break into the Japanese market with plans to break into 17 other global markets as well.
Ben Silbermann, co-founder and CEO of Pinterest said the partnership with Rakuten will help Pinterest move closer towards its business goals.
"Our goal is to help people discover things they love, by connecting people through their shared interests," said Silbermann in May. "Bringing Rakuten on board gives us an amazing opportunity to move a step closer to this goal."
Other investors funding Pinterest include Bessemer Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, FirstMark Captial and various angel investors. Rakuten, however, is the only company participating in the only company participating in the rights offering.
The recent growth of Pinterest is definitely something to acknowledge with visits from mid to the end of 2012 increasing by a staggering amount. A report by Hitwise said the site received 11 million visits during the week of 17 December 2011, which was 40 times the number of visits it received six months before, during a week in June 2011.
The start-up lets users pin items that are interesting to them and it has seen a quick and steady surge of traffic and mentions in social circles. The site began at the end of 2009 and was named among the 50 best websites of 2011 by Time Magazine.
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