Photo credit: Steve Garfield http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevegarfield/5857181644/
The background
Pinterest has just become all-inclusive, ditching its invite-only sign-ups for members, reported Jeremy C. Owens from BRW. Membership rates are widely predicted to soar. For those who are unfamiliar with the site, Pinterest is a “virtual pin board” explained Alyson Shontell from Business Insider, where users can tag, share and save photos to their virtual pin mood boards.
Launching in 2009, the company soon became the second fastest growing site, after Formspring, hitting “10 million users just two months after launch,” Shontell reported. The vast majority of Pinterest users are women; 68 percent of visitors and 85 percent of active users are women, reported the BBC.
So why are women so Pinterested?
A Pinterest member once posted a slide that read: “Pinterest: Where women go to plan imaginary weddings, dress children that don’t exist and decorate homes we can’t afford,” reported Carina Chocano from the The New York Times. Dominant categories are fashion, recipes, special occasions (such as weddings), arts and crafts and interior design, and posted content gets wide attention via users’ re-pins. Even those first sceptical about the utility of the site, such as Donna Trussel from The Washington Post, have praised it for fostering a sense of community for women everywhere.
Not all fun and games, though: copyright issues emerge
It’s not all good news for Pinterest though, as it has just had its first brush with the law regarding copyright issues. Professional photographer and lawyer, Kirsten Kowalsky, recently deleted her Pinterest account after having read the Terms of Use of the site. In an interview in Tech Crunch, she explained that, “Pinterest’s community standards, or ‘Pin Etiquette’ explicitly discourages users from self-promoting by ‘pinning’ photos they have taken themselves. But at the same time, Pinterest’s ‘Terms of Use’ actually forbids users from pinning any photo that does not belong to him or her, and states that users are subject to any legal action that is taken from the copyright or trademark holder. A site can’t put out something like that and say, ‘If you use it like we intend you to use it, you’re liable, not us.’”
Though creating an initial scare amongst members, this is not likely to “to derail Pinterest’s explosive growth,” said Nilay Patel of The Verge, who said it might stagger for a bit, even face a lawsuit or two, but is not likely to dissolve just like that. The fact that Kowalski was later contacted by Pinterested’s CEO, Ben Silbermann, who assured her that “changes are coming” to the terms of use, has further put users’ minds at ease.
When will it cash in?
Though Pinterest’s growth rates are astounding, and much has been said about global investor’s interest in funding the corporation, it doesn’t seem to be cashing in just yet. “Asked in February how the company plans to make money, Silbermann said he ‘hasn’t really focused on it,’” said Jeremy C. Owens from BRW. Nevertheless, many marketing strategies do seem to be on the table, such as monetising links that bring in revenue share. “You can be sure that any social site attracting as many eyeballs as Pinterest … will attract a swarm of marketers in no time,” concluded David Spinks, director of product marketing and community of Zaarly, at The Washington Post
