Pinteresting Enough For 100 Million

Pinterest hit a milestone recently, with an official announcement that it has reached 100 million users, far exceeding the estimates of some analysts’ calculations earlier this year, such as in a report by eMarketer that calculated Pinterest would hit 47 million users in the U.S, by 2015, and 59 million U.S. users by 2019.  But as the New York Times reported, “Pinterest has faced scrutiny over whether the size of its user base and business growth can justify its huge valuation.” Over the past five years, the company has grown to a valuation of about $11 billion dollars.

According to Tribune’s report, co-founder Evan Sharp expressed to AFP that most of the users are not just visiting Pinterest once a month and “They’re actually discovering something so interesting that they’re saving it or are clicking through to the website.”

“It’s 100 million active users, more than 70 per cent of whom are actively engaged,”

This was quoted from a telephone interview they conducted. The disclosure from Pinterest is the first time since its launch in March 2010 that it has discussed the number of users. Sharp said that the majority of Pinterest users are women but noted the gender gap “is closing a little bit every month.”

However, Pinterest’s numbers are lower than Instagram, which claims some 300 million users. It is only in the past year or so that Pinterest has made moves into monetizing its growth. Slowly it has offered itself to advertisers, allowing big brands to buy promoted pins. And, while ads may seem more intrusive on Instagram, interrupting photos of fuzzy cats and weekend warrior selfies, Pinterest relies on its users to save items that they theoretically want to buy. The question, as with most tech companies, startup small businesses and even web marketing or  social media marketing companies of this age, is how they will meet their valuation. But what the numbers do suggest is that Pinterest is not going anywhere anytime soon.