Pinterest: By the Numbers

Each week, we take a social network and examine the numbers behind it. This week we are looking at Pinterest. Pinterest was launched in March 2010 as “a tool for collecting and organizing things you love.” Since its launch it has attracted an overwhelmingly female-dominated audience. As of May 2013, it was estimated that the site was 80% female. Those are numbers are becoming ever so slightly more centrist but still very much female. Pinterest is most popular in the United States with 60% of its users from here. Of the internet-using males in the United States, only 5% have a Pinterest account.

Now, let’s talk content. On an average day, 5 million articles are pinned. 80% of Pinterest pins are repins, or reposts of existing Pinterest content. The average number of followers for US females is 67. Most of the pinned content is photos of products or things. Less than 20% of Pinterest photos have faces in them.

People do spend time on Pinterest. The average time spent on Pinterest is about 14 minutes and an average user spends 98 minutes a month on the site.

One of the biggest trends in social now is mobile access. About 75% of Pinterest users access the site through a mobile device. About 35% of its solely access the site through a mobile device. The Facebook mobile number is about 67% and the Twitter number is around 76%.

One of the most important reasons why certain brands need to be on Pinterest is because users buy based on what they see on Pinterest. On average, every pin is worth about two website visits and six page views. So consumers will come to your site and look around. An average pin is repinned 10 times. Most of the users have a household income somewhere between $30k and $75k.

If you are a consumer brand targeting females, Pinterest is somewhere you have to be. It is highly visual and lends itself strongly to sharing. While there is no e-commerce functionality built in to the platform, it is the source of a significant amount of online purchases. Finally, it is an amazing way to build brand advocates. As with any social platform, it has great potential but you must have a strong strategy.