Dive Brief:

• Content-sharing social platform Pinterest is launching native video ads today, the company announced. The ads will only be available in the U.S. and U.K to start. 
• Ads will be hosted on Pinterest through its native video player. Users will see a preview of the video ad (without sound) in their feed and can click to watch it in full with sound. 
• The ads will come with up to six featured "pins" that the advertiser can share along with the video. The related pins can showcase how to use the product and include buy buttons, according to Pinterest. 

Dive Insight:

All the other social platforms are getting into video — and Pinterest is following suit. 

The news comes shortly after Pinterest announced plans to launch native video tools. Pinterest says its users are twice as likely to watch how-to videos on its site compared to other sites. The company has seen a 60% increase in the number of videos on its platform over the last year.

“At the macro level, there’s a huge demand for video,” Mike Bidgoli, a product manager at Pinterest, told Fortune. 

Pinterest's move into video-based advertising comes as the other major social platforms are betting big on video, such as Facebook, which recently updated its news feed algorithm to emphasize video and has been promoting new live video streaming features. Experts see video as a major growth opportunity for social media companies.

Video ads could help Pinterest fight off its reputation for not-quite-yet having cracked the code on social e-commerce. While the site boasts tantalizing potential for retailers — its predominantly female user base uses the platform for shopping inspiration and product discovery, after all — it has never fully lived up to it. A ChannelAdvisor report on social media from last September found that Pinterest trailed far behind Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in sales conversions.

But the potential is clear for Pinterest. In an interview with Recode, Pinterest's Bidgoli referenced Mary Meeker's famous annual Internet Trends report, saying that 55% of Pinterest users see it as a shopping destination, while only 12% see Facebook or Instagram that way. For many, Pinterest is a recurring stop in their shopping journey — and that means there's natural and significant e-commerce potential there. 

Video ads aren't the only new advertising capabilities that Pinterest has rolled out recently: The company recently expanded the use of Buyable Pin buy buttons on its website, and launched visual search and a new shopping cart feature that allows users to purchase goods from more than one merchant. E-commerce features like these bring the site's look and functionality closer to that of major online marketplaces like Amazon than fellow social media sites like Facebook.

The new video ads won't be available to all brands just yet. Pinterest is rolling out the format to a small group of select advertisers, and will proceed from there.