Cupcakes and cutesy interiors have made multi-millionaires of three blokes in California. Welcome to Pinterest, Palo Alto’s newest and shiniest social media success story.
It’s used mostly by young(ish) women as a sort of style scrapbook to collect or ‘pin’ pictures of stuff they like onto a load of ‘boards’. (The same concept of communal noticeboards is used by the Guardian Media Group‘s social start-up, N0tice – why not have a look at our Bridport N0ticeboard?)
Pinterest is overwhelmingly in touch with its feminine side. It’s packed with images of shoes, recipes and photos of men with their tops off. The branding is vintage-y, and the waiting list fosters a sense of exclusivity.
Yes, you have to be invited to join. If you try to invite yourself, you’ll be left high and dry for a couple of days until one of the admins lets you in (via email). In this sense, Pinterest has echoes of sorority clubs, and it’s yet to rid itself of its distinctly American accent.
So why is it one to watch? Three reasons:
1) It reached 10 million unique monthly visitors faster than any other US website
2) It drives more traffic than Google+, according to Shareaholic
3) It makes money already via SkimLinks automatically giving them a cut for every retail sale Pinterest generates
We’re on it.
