Why Pinterest is 2012's Hottest Website |
Posted: May 29, 2012 |
February 06, 2012|By Pete Cashmore, Special to CNN
Pinterest, the web-based "pinboard", which launched almost two years ago, barely got a mention until 6 months ago.
Pinterest is the breakout social network of 2012, but even technology addicts could be excused for missing its rise to success. The web-based "pinboard," which launched almost two years ago, barely got a mention on Silicon Valley news sites until six months ago, when early adopters suddenly realized that a site with millions of monthly users had sprung up almost unnoticed by the tech press. That's because Pinterest didn't take the usual route of Web-based startups: romancing early adopters and technology journalists before attempting to "cross the chasm" to mainstream adoption. Instead, Pinterest grew a devoted base of users -- most of them female -- who enjoy "pinning" items they find around the Web. While clothing, home decor and recipes dominate the site, inspirational quotes and humor are also popular topics for users to add to their pinboards. Interest, meet Pinterest: Site helps users catalog their passions
How successful is Pinterest? Unique visitors to the site grew 400% from September to December 2011, and just last week one study showed that Pinterest drives more visitors to third-party websites than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined. Demographics are surely a large part of Pinterest's success: While technology's early adopters have sprung upon other interest-driven networks like Quora, these sites now suffer from a form of "cumulative disadvantage" in which mainstream users are put off by how tech-centric they've become. Delicious, a bookmarking service that hit it big during the "Web 2.0" era, relaunched recently with a Pinterest-like interface, but has failed to attract the same audience. Canv.as, meanwhile, is a similar pinboard concept, but caters mainly to those who keep up with the latest Web memes and inside jokes. Pinterest, by contrast, provides no barrier to entry for anyone looking to bookmark, share and comment on images and ideas from around the Web. CNN iReport: What's your Pinterest passion? There's more to Pinterest than its unique audience, however. If you'd mapped out the evolution of social sharing online a few years ago, you might have predicted that something like Pinterest would emerge. As tech entrepreneur Elad Gil insightfully explained in an article on his blog last month, sharing on the Web has been following three parallel trends. The first is that sharing involves less effort over time. The second is that social sites are becoming more visual over time.
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