Allow this veteran Pinterest observer to get angry for
just a moment: It really grinds my gears when people call
Pinterest a “niche” social network.
Sure, it’s old news that Pinterest is used
predominantly by women. But since when is 50 percent of the human
population considered a niche interest group?
Conceived by three male
co-founders, Pinterest’s visual platform was intended to
lend itself just as well to stamp collections as shoe collections.
Readwrite’s own Brian Hall discovered just how universal the
network can be when
he observed, “If Pinterest were a magazine, I suspect it
would be kept very close to a toilet.”
With 70 million users and climbing, Pinterest isn’t
going to go away anytime soon. Here’s why you should start caring
about this influential network, better late than never.
More Ecommerce Than Facebook
According to social login provider Gigya’s latest
numbers, Pinterest grabs 41%
of ecommerce traffic compared to Facebook’s 37%. Since
Pinterest is centered around the social discovery of objects (as
opposed to friends and family), it makes sense that Pinterest
would eventually have the upper hand, but it’s an accomplishment
for any platform to sneak up on Facebook’s
number-one-in-everything status.
More Lucrative Ecommerce Than Anyone
Pinners don’t just like to shop, they like to spend.
Even before Pinterest drove more ecommerce than Facebook did, it
already was driving
more dollars. While the average social shopper (that is, a
shopper who discovers an item on the platform and clicks off site
to buy it) spends an average of $60 to $80 when coming from
Facebook, she spends more like $140
to $180 when coming from Pinterest.
Faster Growth Than Any Other Social Network
Pinterest’s staggering statistics aren’t limited to
just 2013. Last year the ecommerce platform broke a record by
reaching 10
million monthly uniques in just nine months. In one of the
most dramatic hockey-stick charts you’ll ever see, Pinterest
outpaced Facebook, Twitter and every other network in climbing to
that momentous milestone.
More Active Registered Users Than Reddit
It’s been said that men
are from Reddit and women are from Pinterest. If that’s so,
then it’s clear who’s winning this battle of the sexes. Both sites
have around 70 million registered accounts, but this number
doesn't say anything about who's using the site and how much. Many
people sign up for sites never to log in again. According to
Reddit’s latest numbers, only 2
million of its 70 million visitors last month were logged in,
active users.
Meanwhile, a recent study shows that a staggering 20
million of Pinterest's 70 million registered users pinned,
repinned or liked a pin in June. Not bad for a network that’s
featured in the news less than half the time.
Average Pin Is More Relevant Than Average
Tweet
Traffic wise, Pinterest isn’t going to edge up on
Twitter’s 500 million registered users any time soon. But it’s
already competing with the microblogging giant for relevancy, and
that’s saying something.
According to a recent study from analytics and
marketing company Piquora, the average tweet remains useful for a
matter of minutes. Meanwhile, the average pin remains
clickworthy for months. The reason behind this long tail?
Pinners are more likely to discover past pins through search,
while Twitter users tend to watch tweets blip in and out of their
feeds.
Pinterest Rules The iPad
Facebook may still dominate the iPhone, but according
to a study by ShareThis, Pinterest
is the top channel for iPad with an almost 50% share of all
social activity on the tablet. When you realize that more people
use social networks on mobile devices than on computers (a
Comscore study says it’s now mobile over
55% of the time), it puts into perspective just how much
pinning is going on.
So next time you hear somebody talk about this niche
social network that’s just for ladies shopping for shoes, you
might want to set them straight.
Correction: The story has been updated to credit
ShareThis for conducting the iPad study.
DISCLAIMER :
This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. E-mail transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses. The sender therefore does not accept liability for any errors or omissions in the contents of this message, which arise as a result of e-mail transmission. If verification is required please request a hard-copy version. MyEG Services Berhad,Lot 5.01, Level 5,KPMG Tower, No.8, First Avenue,Persiaran Bandar Utama, Bandar Utama,47800 Petaling Jaya,Selangor. www.myeg.com.my