The latest news on the CNBC Disruptor 50 companies upending the status quo in the markets:
Pinterest pines for some 'tasteful' ad revenue
Every social media ultimately faces a question more important than how many users they can trumpet: How much money they can make? The IPO market won't give a social media firm its billions without an effective ad strategy, so "we're going to start experimenting with promoting certain pins from a select group of businesses," CEO Ben Silbermann wrote on the company's blog this past week.
No annoying banner or pop-up ads, but "promoted pins" based on search results and "relevant" user interests.
This move is being carefully plotted by Pinterest so as not to alienate users.
"Nobody's paying for anything yet," wrote Silbermann. "We want to see how things go and, more than anything, hear what you think." He also described the promoted pins as "tasteful," "transparent" and "relevant."
Eating America's best burgers, the Foursquare way
Foursquare helps users identify many things, including the best burgers around the country. Its mobile check-in feature has found America's most popular burgers by ranking the joints where the most Foursquare users have felt compelled to "check-in."
(Read more: Giving you the power of a tech giant)
Kabam ain't as free as it used to be: Gamers
Video game maker Kabam prides itself on its free-to-play model. Well, some players of its Dragons of Atlantis social strategy game have organized in protest against a change to the free-to-play game that they argue forces them to pay.
Kabam said it was trying to curb unfair advantages exploited by some gamers—the company makes changes to games to optimize it for both fairness and monetization, and Venturebeat reported that the revolt was limited to a small but vocal group.