While everyone thinks Facebook and Twitter have gobbled up online sharing, a simple idea of pinboard is transforming sharing, rapidly claiming its share of faithful users in the social sharing sphere.
Pinterest is a virtual pinboard that lets users organize and share images of stuff they find interesting on the web. Interests can be as varied as the individuals; from wedding decorations, recipes, fashion, cars, art etc. Members create and view pinboards created by other people, making it fun to discover and learn new things from people that share their interest.
The online pinboard has experienced phenomenal growth over the last one year, mostly in the US. It hit the ten million monthly unique visitors faster that any other website. Comscore, the communications research company, says Pinterest’s unique users grew by 85 percent between mid-January and mid-February to 11.5 million users.
“Our goal is to connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting. We think that a favorite book, toy, or recipe can reveal a common link between two people. With millions of new pins added every week, Pinterest is connecting people all over the world based on shared tastes and interests,” says the Pinterest mission statement.
Interestingly, 85 percent of US users are women – partly attributable to the site’s user-friendly interface that makes posting of images, sharing and commenting easier than most similar site.
The site was founded by Ben Silbermann in March 2010, but remained in closed beta before it opened to the public. Nine months after the launch the website had 10,000 users.
It was in 2011 that Pinterest really took off, featuring in Time Magazine of ’50 Best Websites of 2011’ and named the best startup of 2011 by Techcrunch.
Lately, copyright issues have threatened to curtail the growth of Pinterest because users tend to share photos they find online, sometimes infringing on copyright laws.
Do you use Pinterest? What makes it different? Please share.
