Tim Kendall, Pinterest’s GM Of Monetization, Talks Buyable Pins

Following Pinterest’s unveiling of Buyable Pins — a way for merchants to sell things that users can buy directly within Pinterest — I had an opportunity to sit down with the company’s general manager of monetization Tim Kendall to talk a little bit more about it.

The first thing he made clear was that, for now, brands will not be able to promote Buyable Pins. To be sure, around two-thirds of the content on Pinterest is made by businesses, but those businesses are going to have to rely on organic traffic to drive sales for their products for the time being. Around 87 percent of Pinterest users have bought a product after discovering it on Pinterest, Kendall said.

“This isn’t an ad offering, it’s an experience for pinners,” he said. “Pinners tell us, ‘I discover great things from Pinterest every day, I stumble across it, I wish I could buy it on Pinterest without leaving — it’s about addressing that pain point. Basically we’ve been told for five years, it’s the No. 1 request from pinners. For partners it’s a way to reach customers already on Pinterest, sell products but continue to own the customer relationship.”

Still, Kendall left the door open for it as a possibility in the future: “It’s not an advertising offering — we hope to offer that at some point but we did not announce that.”

Like any feature, users are going to have to slowly be introduced to how it works. Kendall said during the development process, not much about the design changed, but as things often work in design, “If you look up there and it seems simple and elegant it was really hard to get there.”

“It was pretty similar to what you saw today,” he said. “Blue?” he said after a pause — which I’m guessing is referring to what the color of the button should be.

Once Buyable Pins launch later this month on the iPhone and iPad, Pinterest will walk users through how it works, much like other new features it rolls out. Users will either have to enter a credit card number or use Apple Pay, and they’ll still have to enter their address once.

But the company was trying to figure out a way to make it have as little friction as possible, because the drop-off in conversion to a sale between desktop and mobile devices is around 75  percent, Kendall said. Around 80 percent of Pinterest’s users access it through mobile devices.

Right now, new merchants will have to go through Shopify or Demandware in order to get their products for sale on Pinterest. Kendall said tens of thousands of merchants are already working through those platforms. While it’s partnered with big retailers like Macy’s, that’s still likely the fastest way to get products on Pinterest that users can buy right away.

If a Shopify merchant opts in to placing Buyable Pins on Pinterest, those existing products that have been pinned on Pinterest will become available for purchase. And for those products not on Pinterest, the company adds them to its corpus of pins, Kendall said. Otherwise, that retailer will have to do some kind of a direct integration, and right now Pinterest isn’t creating a sort of platform that any merchant or retailer can use to add Buyable Pins to Pinterest.

“We’re gonna continue to build those solutions that make this as easy as possible for as many partners as possible,” he said. “But we have nothing specific to talk about yet.”

Still, this is another step that could convince more merchants to put content on Pinterest. The more content there is on Pinterest — and users are surprisingly tolerant and accepting of business content, unlike many platforms — the more pins there are for pinners to search out and discover. And if they’re able to buy things on Pinterest, they’re more likely to come back to buy things, giving advertisers more of an opportunity to get other ads in front of those users.

FEATURED IMAGE: PINTEREST

U.S. says senior diplomat met with Yemen's Houthi in Oman

Senior U.S. diplomats met representatives of Yemen's Houthi rebels in the capital of Oman for a day last week to press for the release of American hostages and discuss a political solution to the country's conflict, the State Department said on Tuesday.

The department said on Monday that American journalist Casey Coombs, a journalist held by Houthi rebels in Yemen, had arrived in the Omani capital, Muscat, and was in a stable condition. Three other Americans are still believed held by the Houthi militia - two of Yemeni and one of Somali origin.

"These meetings in general were part of our broad engagement with elements of the Yemeni political spectrum," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told a briefing.

"We used that meeting to reinforce our view that there can only be a political solution to the conflict in Yemen, and that all parties, including the Houthi, should commit to participation in the U.N.-led political process," she added.

The meeting was led by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near-Eastern Affairs Anne Patterson, who also traveled to Jordan and Saudi Arabia to discuss a cease-fire in Yemen, she said.

While in Riyadh, Patterson also met with exiled Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and other senior Yemeni officials on the conflict that has killed more than 2,000 people.

A Saudi-led coalition of Gulf Arab states has bombed Iranian-backed Houthi militia since March to try to restore Hadi to power.

Harf said the meetings were "trying to get the parties, including the Houthis, to commit to participating in this U.N.-led political process and encouraging them to attend the planned talks in Geneva."

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry briefly discussed the situation in Yemen with his Iranian counterpart on the sidelines of nuclear talks in Geneva on Saturday.

Harf did not elaborate on what was discussed, but said she did not believe the American hostages issue was addressed.

(Reporting by Lesley Wroughton, editing by G Crosse)

Syrian insurgent advances put Assad under pressure

Steady advances by insurgents on key fronts in Syria mean President Bashar al-Assad is under more military pressure than at any point in the four-year-old war.

Losses in the north, east and south to groups including al Qaeda's Syrian arm and Islamic State may test Assad's hold over western parts of the country that are the most crucial to his survival.

After his loss of Palmyra, a symbolic and militarily strategic city, and nearly all of Idlib province, he appears to be circling his wagons more closely to a western region that includes Damascus, Homs, Hama and the coast.

Sources familiar with the thinking in Damascus acknowledge that pressure is growing but say the government is confident the army can defend crucial territory with the help of its allies.

Assad still controls areas in more far-flung parts of Syria, but these are dwindling in number. His decision to maintain forces in places such as in Deir al-Zor, Hasaka and Aleppo suggests he still wants to preserve a nationwide presence, rejecting Syria's de facto partition.

Sources familiar with the government's thinking say Assad is confident about standing his ground: extra support is expected from Iran, his strongest ally, which said on Tuesday it would continue to stand by Syria. The Lebanese group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, is more widely deployed in Syria than ever.

And Assad still believes the West will eventually rehabilitate him as a partner in the fight against Islamic State - a shift that shows no sign of happening but which he thinks is inevitable given the risk of a full jihadist takeover.

"The summer will be tough on the ground, but red lines will not be breached," said one source familiar with the thinking in Damascus, declining to be named because he was discussing private conversations with Syrian officials.

Assad has survived such pressure before, notably at the end of 2012 when the West thought his government was near collapse. But the difference now is that the insurgents have grown in strength while government forces have been weakened after more than four years of fighting.

Assad has also lost Iraqi Shi'ite militiamen who had been fighting alongside Syrian forces. They went home to fight Islamic State after it captured Mosul and other Iraqi cities last June. The sudden advances also added to the military pressures facing Iran both in Syria and Iraq.

Insurgent groups in the north and south of Syria have emerged as the war's most dynamic force in the past two months. They are better organized and armed than before and are believed to have received new support from Assad's regional enemies.

"Clearly the trends right now are working against the regime, but it appears the regime's backers - and Iran in particular - may increase their support in an attempt to reverse those trends," said Noah Bonsey, senior analyst with the International Crisis Group thinktank.

"It is too early to tell what such an escalation could achieve," he said. "The regime is still seeking to maintain as much of its geographic reach as it can."

Lebanon's As-Safir newspaper on Tuesday said more than 20,000 Iraqi, Iranian and Lebanese fighters had entered Idlib province in readiness for a counter attack. Reuters was not able to independently verify the report.

WHERE IS THE SUPPORT?
Public concern about the war has surfaced in government-held areas where most of the population still lives. The Syrian lira has weakened.

Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem fielded tough questions during a televised news conference in Damascus last week, including whether Syria was now in fact partitioned.

One journalist put it to him that Iranian and Russian statements of support were failing to halt insurgent advances. People were asking why this support was not more apparent on the ground, the journalist said.

"This question is certainly asked in the popular opinion," Moualem said. The relationship with Russia and Iran "is deeper than some think", he added.

A diplomat who tracks Syria said the tone reflected a new government willingness to admit vulnerability.

"It's a change in their attitude," the diplomat said. "The general mood is black."

The deputy head of Israel's armed forces said this week the Syrian military had "ceased to exist, de facto", while Hezbollah was investing in thousands of its fighters in Syria.

Others describe the situation in less dire terms, and say the army is still able to defend government-held areas.

State TV airs videos reassuring Syrians the army is in good shape, displaying its weapons and showing bare-chested soldiers breaking concrete with their arms.

"We believe in the capacity of the army to restore security for every inch of Syria," the headline of a recent state media report read, citing Prime Minister Wael al-Halaki.

TACTICAL WITHDRAWAL
Assad is still determined to hold on to energy installations needed to supply government-held areas, including gas and oil fields east of Homs. Last week he despatched Halaki on a visit to the Sha'ar gas field, which had previously fallen to Islamic State but was recaptured after fierce battles.

An offensive by the army and Hezbollah against insurgents including the Nusra Front in the Qalamoun mountain range north of Damascus is also crucial.

The diplomat said: "It will be very difficult for armed groups to take (Damascus), because it will be a battle not just for land, but a fight for survival." But Latakia on the coast and Homs could be harder to defend.

The Syrian government views the fall of Palmyra as a tactical defeat but a strategic gain, said Salem Zahran, a Lebanese pundit with close ties to Damascus.

Islamic State's capture of the city and its UNESCO World Heritage site should encourage Washington to review its Syria policy, would make U.S.-allied Jordan take greater notice of the Islamic State threat, and force Iraq to cooperate more with Syria, he said, reflecting the view in Damascus.

Damascus is also counting on Syria climbing up Iran's list of priorities once Tehran signs a nuclear deal with world powers, Zahran said.

But previous assumptions that Assad could not be defeated due to his superior military strength underpinned by the air force were no longer valid, the diplomat said. The insurgents were building on their momentum and had more recruits.

"For every 100 soldiers lost by the regime, there are not 100 more coming in," the diplomat said.

(Additional reporting by Tom Perry and Laila Bassam; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Here’s What A Web Browser Running On The Apple Watch Looks Like (Spoiler: Not Great)

“Wouldn’t it be neat to have a web browser on my Apple Watch?”

No, no it wouldn’t. It’s a thought most smartwatch owners have had at one time or another — but in the end, we probably don’t want that.

Comex, a well-known jailbreak developer who went off to spend some time as an Apple intern before moving on to other projects, has whipped up a fleeting but seemingly functional example of what a browser might look like running on the Apple Watch — and… well, again: you probably don’t want this.

The web just wasn’t built for screens this small. It took years for smartphone browsers to become more usable than frustrating, and a lot of the usability gains there came from massive screen spec jumps. A 1.5″ smartwatch screen never becomes particularly web-friendly, no matter how many pixels you cram in that screen.

Alas, Comex makes no mention of how he got this up and running. Out of the box, running arbitrary code like this shouldn’t be possible — while a native SDK is inbound, only stuff built with Apple’s somewhat limited WatchKit framework is supposed to run on the device for now. Is this a subtle demonstration of the world’s first jailbroken Apple Watch?

Here’s the vid, as tweeted by Comex and spotted by 9to5mac (Speaking of usability: pardon the wonky tallness of the video; it was shot vertically, so there’s no easy way to embed it in a pretty way. For best viewing, consider fullscreening it):