Pinterest has launched TwoTwenty, its own in-house incubator for new discoveries.

Pinterest presented a new project today to help the company increase the pace of innovation. The company launches TwoTwenty, an in-house experimental product team named after Pinterest's first headquarters. Engineers, designers and other product professionals will research, prototype and test new features and concepts before identifying those that are gaining momentum. Successful products will be passed on to other departments within the organization on a scale.

According to the agency, staff were already involved in several of Pinterest's recent launches. It started with livestreamed creative events, which eventually grew to include features such as the ability to revisit livestreams and help purchase product suggestions. Pinterest's recently announced product, "Pinterest TV", a live shopping feature in the app that tries to compete with competing services such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and other specialized livestream shopping platforms, now includes these features.

Pinterest's TV program includes a series of "shows" from creators, where fans can connect and ask questions while buying live. It also gives designers a virtual studio, inspired by TwoTwenty's work, according to Pinterest. The decision to develop an internal team dedicated to new project ideas comes at a time when Pinterest is striving to reinvent itself for the modern era of online social, which is more focused on formats such as video and livestreaming in the midst of a thriving creative economy.

In that respect, the debut of Pinterest TV was a significant departure from Pinterest's original concept of an online bulletin board where users research and find new ideas, which can sometimes lead to an online purchase. Pinterest hopes to attract a younger market that has grown up with social applications such as Instagram and TikTok, where video and live content are central to the experience, with video and live shopping. If Facebook can not make this transition properly, it may be on its way out as a leading social network. (In fact, withdrawal negotiations may already be underway.) There have been allegations that Pinterest and PayPal are considering a transaction, but PayPal has stated that they are not currently interested in acquiring a business.)

Pinterest revealed that its new incubation team will gather ideas through an online submission portal known as "Idea Factory" as well as the company-wide "Makeathons" (hackathon event). The team will then test the concepts and prototypes to determine who will gain momentum. At any given time, one or two initiatives will be underway, some of which will see the light of day, while others will be shelved if they are not successful, similar to how a company can explore.

Initially, the team will consist of product manager David Temple, who has been responsible for creative products; early engineer Ryan Probasco; Content Manager Meredith Arthur, who previously worked for CBS; and Albert Pereta, who joined Pinterest through the acquisition of Iceberg in 2014. Engineer and one of Pinterest's first iOS engineers Steven Ramkumar; and other. The team now has 15 full-time employees and is continuously recruiting more members.

Other significant technology companies are formalizing their efforts to encourage innovation even through specialized teams.

Facebook, for example, formed the "NPE Team" in 2019 to test new ideas and features and measure user reaction. However, none of these have grown to become their own unique Facebook (now Meta) brand over the years; instead, they have guided the creation of other Facebook and Instagram features. At the same time, Google has let its most innovative employees experiment with Area 120, its internal incubator. By comparison, this group has produced many successful products that have now spread to other sectors of Google's business, such as Search, Shopping, Commerce and Cloud. With the current reorganization, that team has been upgraded and matched along with other long-term focused breakthroughs, such as the holographic video conferencing effort called Project Starline.

"TwoTwenty encourages collaboration and accelerates ideas from across the organization," Temple said in a statement. "We can explore and invest in new ideas to help individuals discover inspiration to live a life they love because we have the resources of an established brand," he added.