Apple is in talks to buy up Pinterest rival The Fancy, as it looks to bolster its social media tools and grow its ecommerce revenue.
Similar to Pinterest, The Fancy acts as an online pinboard or scrapbook, letting users save pics related to their interests and post it to a blog-come-wall.
The site is backed by Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, and describes itself as ‘part store, blog magazine and wishlist’.
Last year, The Fancy secured a $10m round of financing from lead investor Pinault-Printemps-Redoute (PPR), the French multinational that owns some of the world’s biggest fashion brands including Gucci, Yves St Laurent and Balenciaga.
Parent company Thingd turns data from the site into revenue by collecting affiliate fees when users purchase items recommended on the site. It is said to take a 10% cut of purchases. The company also plans to help private buyers and sellers of second hand goods find each other and take a cut of the transactions in a similar vein to online auction site eBay.
According to Business Insider, Apple is in talks to purchase the site and plans to use it to leverage the 400 million-plus credit cards it has on file at its iTunes store.
Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly started using The Fancy after meeting with the company’s co-founder and CEO Joe Einhorn earlier this year.
