Next stop for Pinterest: an office in Berlin

It looks like the next prominent Silicon Valley company is setting up shop in Berlin: photo sharing community Pinterest. The company has two job ads on its website seeking a Berlin-based country and community manager. The new staff will be responsible for accelerating Pinterest’s German growth and building a small team. So far, the company hasn’t revealed where its Berlin office will be located.

The news comes off the back of a major setback for Pinterest in Europe – the European Trademark Office ruled that the company does not own the rights to “Pinterest” as it is already trademarked by another company. The case is yet to be resolved, it’s possible that Pinterest  will be forced to change its name for European users.

The company is also having a tough time getting European users on board. Data collected by GlobalWebIndex from Q4 2013 revealed that, while 34 per cent of internet users in the US have a Pinterest account, only eight per cent of European internet users have one – which explains why the company hopes a local German team will boost this figure.

Pinterest joins a growing number of established startups that have set up a Berlin presence including Shutterstock, social gaming company King and private driver service Uber – which controversially spilt from its German management team late last year.

This story originally appeared on VentureVillage. Copyright 2014