Social media space Pinterest is growing at an extremely swift pace. The site has recently been named one of the top 10 sites for social networking and forums by Hitwise.
The upstart lets users pin items that are interesting to them and it has seen a quick and steady surge of traffic and mentions in social circles. The site began at the end of 2009 and was named among the 50 best websites of 2011 by Time Magazine.
Users can create themed image boards and can add items to their own board found online using the "Pin It" button. The Pins that users share show up on a Pin Feed on the home page. The pins can be divided into discussion, pictures, videos and even gifts that are sectioned into price ranges from $1 to more than $500.
Pictures can be divided into subcategories of topics on the invitation-only site like gardening, kids, women’s apparel, men’s apparel, technology, sports, photography, weddings, film, education, music, and fitness.
In a report by Hitwise, the site received a whopping 11 million visits during the week of 17 December 2011 which was 40 times the number of visits it received six months before during a week in June 2011.
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Pinterest content is mostly dominated by interest in crafts, fashion, food, and home décor. 58% of site visitors towards the end of the year were female between the ages of 25 and 44.
The report also shows that young adults and consumers in the category of "baby boomers" make up 10% of total site visits as they are heavy web users who spend a significant amount of time on family-centred websites, along with fitness and garden sites.
Pinterest can be a paradise for retailers due the amount of trafficking the site gets and its large content revolving around fashion. Consumers often show off their purchases on boards which friends can then discuss and repin. The website’s popularity status is growing and according to data by Monetate, is becoming one of the top five referred for many apparel retailers.
Pinterest raised $37m last year in funding and has an unconfirmed estimated value of up to $200m. The site is also ranked No. 5 in social networking sites driving the most referral traffic, beating Google+ which ranked at No. 9.
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