Popular online bulletin board Pinterest is getting ready for a stock market debut early next year at a valuation of $12 billion or more, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

The San Francisco-based startup could have an initial public offering of shares as soon as April, according to Journal, which did not name sources for the information.

Pinterest is a virtual bulletin board platform, with users decorating their boards with pictures showcasing interests in a variety of areas, including food, fashion and travel.

It boasts more than 250 million monthly active users, with most of those "pinners" outside the United States.

Pinterest sees itself as being at the crossroads of social networking and online search, with users consulting it when seeking out products or services.

The eight-year-old company seems to have avoided vexations that internet titans such as Facebook and Twitter have experienced regarding hateful or abusive content.

Pinterest brings in money from playing a role in online shopping and from advertising, but has not publicly shared details regarding how well those efforts have been paying off.

The company pushes hard into e-commerce by enabling people to use smartphones to identify products they might wish to pursue.

Ride-hailing firms Lyft and Uber are also reportedly aiming to go public next year with initial public offerings of stock in what promise to be multibillion-dollar market debuts.