Pinterest Ends Affiliate Links, Prepares for Buy Button

Pinterest, the site for social networking is banning the affiliate links and the redirects it allowed, according to an online watchdog site.

The news comes as rumors have surfaced that Pinterest is planning to launch its own buy button later in 2015, possibly in collaboration with Stripe the payment service.

However, the company has denied it was blocking links to affiliates because of monetization purposes.

A spokesperson for Pinterest said the decision was 100% about ensuring relevant content and the Pinner experience on Pinterest. However, the spokesperson did say the company was aggressively looking for monetization opportunities.

Pinterest released a statement that said it observed affiliate links as well as redirects causing irrelevant posts to show in feeds and broken links as well as other spammy type behavior.

The company said the statement believes the change will enable the site to maintain a high relevancy bar and quality that Pinners have come to expect out of Pinterest.

A national daily said the company claimed it has been removing affiliate links automatically for years. However, it allowed certain exceptions that had maintained good quality.

RewardStyle, which is an affiliate that is related to the fashion industry and has over 9,000 websites, bloggers and other publishers it works with was amongst those allowed to keep linking, until recently, wrote the national daily.

A Pinterest spokesperson said the company noticed that Pinner behavior was going downhill, which caused Pins to be delivered slower and become less relevant in the home feeds of users.

According to an online e-commerce research firm online sellers have sued Pinterest, but as a tool for marketing instead of a platform for e-commerce.

Pinterest received the backing of Rakuten the online marketplace as well as venture capitalists helping it with its cash flow and expansion ideas.