Why Is Pinterest So Popular?

You can’t talk about social media these days without at least mentioning the ‘site du jour’… Pinterest. Even if you’ve heard of it, you might be asking yourself, what exactly is it, and why is it so popular? We’ve spent a couple of  weeks using the service in order to understand all of the hype and to shed some light on what is either the latest and greatest the internet has to offer, or will end up being the next flash in the pan.

What exactly IS Pinterest?

Well, it’s an online scrapbook of sorts. One that you can share with friends, family or anyone that has similar interests. Instead of text, or news articles however, it’s jam packed with images that you can comment on, ‘pin’ on your own wall, or share. The entire idea is incredibly simple, and after spending about 2 minutes setting up your profile you’re free to view whatever you want. Topics range from Architecture to Food to Science and everything in between.

Think of it as a very basic Facebook Wall, but in a good way. You can browse walls of your friends or complete strangers and depending on their interests, will find yourself connected in a more visual way than I think Facebook offers. Of course, Facebook does a lot more than just sharing content on walls, but I don’t think Pinterest is trying to directly compete with the big blue behemoth.

Why has it become so popular?

Let’s start with how popular the site is. In December 2011 alone, it had over 11 million visitors. That is up 40x from 6 months prior. FOURTY times. And according to ComScore, it is the quickest website to ever hit 10 million visitors. Oh, and it’s invite only, which makes that figure even more impressive.