Pinterest appointed Santiago Restrepo as Country Head for Mexico for its Enterprise business. From this position, he will lead the commercial relationship with the main brands, agencies and advertisers in the country at a time when the platform is undergoing its most significant transformation.
Pinterest's 2026 numbers justify the bet. During the first quarter, the platform reached a historical maximum of 631 million monthly active users, an 11% year-on-year growth, and its revenues exceeded one billion dollars for the first time in a quarter with an 18% increase. However, the company reported a net loss of 74 million dollars, partially related to restructuring costs, which describes a company in expansion that is still working on converting audience and technology into sustained profitability.
Santiago Restrepo arrives after almost a decade at Rappi, where he held various leadership positions linked to digital advertising, retail media and Enterprise account management in Latin America. In his most recent role, he was the global leader of RappiAds for Latin America, responsible for building commercial plans with large mass consumption companies based on transactional data and buyer behavior.
The movement implies a shift towards a different logic. In RappiAds, the intention to buy is immediate: the user opens the app because they need something now. On Pinterest, that intention can begin weeks or months before the transaction, when a person plans a wedding, remodels a space, defines a style of clothing or prepares a trip. The platform registers around 80 billion monthly searches and more than half have a commercial orientation. 96% of its main searches do not include a specific brand, which means that an important part of its users have not yet chosen a provider when they start exploring.
That openness is Pinterest's core value proposition for advertisers: the ability to compete before preference is set. The challenge will be to translate that promise into concrete indicators of sales, consideration and return on investment for brands accustomed to measuring results on performance platforms such as Google, Meta or retail media.
Marcos Westphalen, Pinterest's Vice President for Latin America, pointed out that Restrepo's trajectory in boosting digital businesses fits with the platform's objectives. Mexico combines a young population, a mature advertising industry, e-commerce growth and the presence of global consumer companies, conditions that Pinterest considers favorable for scaling its Enterprise operation in the market.
From next+, we congratulate Santiago Restrepo on this appointment and wish him success in this new chapter at the helm of Pinterest Mexico. His experience in retail media and digital commerce comes at a time when the platform precisely needs that profile to demonstrate that inspiration can have a verifiable economic value.