The story of Pinterest

Just when you thought that the world was getting a social media fatigue, Pinterest comes around and shows the world that it’s all wrong! In February 2012 Pinterest was announced as the fastest site to reach 10 million unique visits. In fact Pinterest is only behind Facebook and Tumblr in terms of the average time spent by people on the site. An average Pinterest user spends around 98 minutes a month compared to 2.5 hours on Tumblr and 7 hours on Facebook. What is the reason behind its phenomenal success?

Like many other social media companies, Pinterest too is located in the sunny Palo Alto, the Silicon Valley. The company founded by Ben Silbermann and Evan Sharp describes itself as –

Pinterest is a Virtual Pinboard.

Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes. Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.

It all started with an application called Tote that Ben was working on. The idea behind Tote was to create the first women’s fashion catalogue on Iphone. While working on the app Ben saw that women were grabbing particular items and tagging them so that they could see it a later time. He also saw that a large number of users were grabbing, tagging and sharing these items with their friends. He realized that people were sharing their tastes with their friends. This led Silbermann to create a tool for Tote users to organize and share their interests. This tool was instrumental in the incarnation of Pinterest.

 People who have been observing Pinterest say that what separates it from other social media sites like Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and Flickr is that Pinterest is more about interests that people want to share rather than what people want to brag about. Unlike facebook images which scream out ‘I was here’, ‘look at me in this designer dress’ etc. Pinterest images are more likely to be about what people want to do, like someone wants to buy a pair of shoes, so they pin its picture on their boards. In fact if you see the most shared topics on Pinterest you can see the way it differs from other social sites. Some of the most trending topics happen to be ‘Wedding ideas’ and ‘Food recipes’.

The way Pinterest has grown in just two years has caught everyone’s attention. People are debating whether it’s something to last or just another one of that newbie social media site that would eventually fade away. The way its adding new users, while still being an invitation only site is something incredible.

The big question, and challenge, however is how it will move into commercializing itself. Even now it’s earning handsomely through its affiliate links. But marketers all over are now asking themselves how they can use Pinterest as a marketing tool.  For companies to dole out those dollars there needs to be data that proves the effectiveness of its platform. A recent study at Emily Carr University has shown that about 1 in every 5 people who pin something will later go and buy that thing. This is a great conversion rate. Now it’s up to the marketers have to devise ways to reap the huge potential that this website offers. If Pinterest is able to successfully commercialize itself without alienating its users then its next phase of growth might be even more astonishing.