Not Pinteresting anymore, Pinterest active users slump

by Mark Tyson on 23 April 2012, 15:34

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qabfmb

Add to My Vault: x

Up and coming social network Pinterest was riding the crest of a wave of popularity until now. It was one of the fastest growing sites ever. However new figures show that this month active Pinterest user growth isn’t just slowing, it’s declining; in April so far Monthly Active Users (MAU) are down from 11.15 million to 8.3 million.

 

Graphs illustrating decline from AppData.com

 

The Pinterest site allows users to share things they like on a virtual pin board. A user will set up a pin board under topics of their own choosing and then populate the boards with things they like or are inspired by (usually pictures). The “Pins” can be shared and also you can follow other Pinterest users with similar interests, ‘celeb’ users or with friends and acquaintances. The most popular shared items seem to be pictures of food, fashion, exotic locations and cute things. The site and the pin board you create and share has a pleasant design and could be said to be prettier than Facebook or Twitter. The Pinterest site is most popular with females aged over 36 years.

 

 

Becoming a Pinterest user is by invitation only but it’s not a very exclusive club because it seems anyone who leaves their email address requesting membership will be granted it within a few days. Some commentators say that this artificial scarcity of membership invites helps create more demand for the service.

There are several reasons put forward for the current lack of Pinterest;

  • A large chunk of people interested in Pinterest tried it and now have decided it’s not for them
  • The recent Pinterest site redesign is not so popular
  • An iPhone app update recently denied some Pinterest users access for a few days (app now fixed)

Is there room for another social network in many users’ lives? I’ve tried Pinterest and found it preferable to Twitter because I like design and visual niceties. Pictures are the basis of most users pin boards. My wife’s cooking blog is TaiwanDuck.com and even though TaiwanDuck has been active on Twitter and Facebook quite a long time it has had a lot more people come from Pinterest. However, food is a strong interest area for Pinterest users. In conclusion, after such a record breaking surge in users, I’d say that Pinterest is merely taking a breath before the climb continues. Chinese copyists definitely think Pinterest is onto something good!



HEXUS Forums :: 5 Comments

Login with Forum Account

Don't have an account? Register today!
I haven't even heard of it before! I must be getting old.
Jay
I haven't even heard of it before! I must be getting old.

The Pinterest site is most popular with females aged over 36 years
That might have something to do with it…
Surely the bigger news is that according to the stats on AppData (where the Pinterest stats are quoted from) it has overtaken Twitter last month to go from the 3rd most popular social network to the 2nd, beating Twitter, G+, LinkedIn, MySpace, yada yada - that one's not a social network it's just a noise I make when I lose (pin)interest !
I think its numbers are decreasing because a. there's nothing in it for guys and b. sharing pictures to a communal page gets old…so what's the major value? I joined because I thought it would be a good replacement for my bookmarks bar on my browser; but, it's not…and I really don't want another account on another social media site!

Anyway, look into Clipix if you're interested in a great alternative to the old bookmarks toolbar, which is what I was originally looking for in Pinterest. You get the community page, but you also get to ‘clip’ more things (docs/pics/vids/articles/sites, etc), you can do way more with your boards like put multiple boards in one big one (multiboards). You can even share a board with whomever you want, privately or publicly, and all parties can drop clips into it (syncboards). It's just great for keeping yourself organized.

Personally, I don't have time to look at pics all day, guess I'm not the only one!
MaddAussie
Jay
I haven't even heard of it before! I must be getting old.

The Pinterest site is most popular with females aged over 36 years
That might have something to do with it…

I'm sure that for some people social networking IS their hobby but really there are too many and most working people have far too much to do already. It strikes me that stay-at-home-mums, teenagers, housewives and the unemployed are going to be the biggest user groups, and perhaps increasingly the retired as they become more internet savvy… (early 80's IT boffs will be retiring soon!)

Personally between my job, the mrs, my hobbies, life functions, chores and sleeping I barely find the time to keep in touch with Facebook which given it has the most of my friends on it is the only one that's going to return the time investment. I don't even have kids yet…

I just can't see their being room for more than a few social networks and they need critical mass of users to sustain interest, it's no good if there is nobody you know/like on it.