InfoWorld: Pinterest's development momentum exceeds Facebook: integrating social networking and e-commerce

Now, every time users share photo collections, Pinterest's momentum is growing. There is a website that is currently surpassing Facebook, Google+ and Twitter in terms of momentum: Pinterest. Pinterest is a social photo sharing website that provides users with photo collection creation and sharing services. Pinterest is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, and is dedicated to connecting people through common interests.

The images posted to Pinterest's homepage are constantly changing. On Wednesday, for example, the site featured a variety of images, including talks about God, steak dinner recipes, charts for calculating healthy weight, and how to lose belly fat.

Pinterest is primarily a picture collection website that looks at fashion, travel, cooking and religion from an interesting perspective, and also allows users to share their views on pictures. Users can comment, forward and share uploaded content. Users can apply, but only those who receive an invitation are eligible to become members.

Colorful elements

Brad Shimmin, an analyst at CurrentAnalysis, said that Pinterest's development proves that a new social network does not have to be as large as Google to fully gather user popularity and activity. Pinterest is just re-interpreting the old model, sharing links that people are interested in. What makes Pinterest different from previous websites such as Reddit, Del.ici.ous, Digg, etc. is that it is purely visual. The main driving force of Pinterest is its inherent nature as a recommendation generation engine.

When it comes to recommendations, Shimoin believes Pinterest is eclipsing other social networking sites, such as Google+ and LinkedIn. This could be an interesting turn of events for both social networking and e-commerce.

Dan Olds, an analyst at Gabrielle Consulting Group, said Pinterest has added an interesting element to social networks. Most users grab images from the web. These images have links to the original pages, so if you post a photo of a new pair of shoes, your followers can know where you bought the shoes, or at least see where the photo came from.

If the user reposts the photo in his/her album, more users interested in fashion and shopping will be able to see the information about the shoes.

Innovation Model

Olds said Pinterest could be the next wave of convergence between social networking and e-commerce. The biggest driver of the network is shopping and discovering new and interesting products to buy. Pinterest provides help for users and also allows users to show others how they use these products and how to combine them in innovative ways.

Although analysts could not provide data to support this, there are many reports that Pinterest's user base is mostly female. Rob Enderle, an analyst at Enderle Group, said this is not actually a problem for the site, but may be a benefit.

Enderle said that this means that the site has a specific customer. If you have a specific customer, it is easier to meet their needs. If you know the customer, the default advertising can be more targeted and targeted, the budget can be more clearly placed, and there is a greater ability to ensure customer loyalty.

From an e-commerce perspective, Pinterest caters to a large portion of women, which is another area where the site shines.

Enderle said that the website can closely connect female users with products and can be a good way to bind brands with female consumer groups. In addition, the same model can be used for men or other groups, and all you have to do is to bring together groups with common interests and hobbies.

So can Pinterest maintain its momentum in terms of user growth and online activity? This will depend in part on whether larger social networks like Facebook and Google+ take notice of Pinterest's success and incorporate its concepts into their own sites.

Because Pinterest is a startup, it doesn't have the global name recognition or deep pockets of Google, which means Google's social network, Google+, has more time to establish itself and become profitable, while Pinterest may not have the same luxury.

However, Olds is optimistic about Pinterest's prospects. He said that Pinterest can stand on its own with its innovative concept, and the site has already gained a large user base, about one-third of Twitter's user base, which is a considerable scale that is enough for the company to achieve a qualitative leap. If Pinterest has financial support, the site can continue to grow and develop, and management has ample time to explore the business model.