What Is Pinterest?

Pinterest is a social media web and mobile application that allows users to share exclusively visual content in a bulletin board-type format. It works as a social bookmarking tool where you can discover and save (or “pin”) information in the form of images, GIFs, and videos.

The site is available in 27 languages and it allows you to find new interests by posting images either to your own board or to the boards of other users. You can also make collections of “pins” using visual content that has a common theme or re-pin images on your own board. Sharing is made easy through other social media platforms like Twitter or Facebook and users can also embed pins on their blog or website.

History of Pinterest

Pinterest is now the fastest-growing online channel for sharing content, surpassing giants like Facebook and Snapchat. Its highly visual medium has become a valuable asset for small and larger businesses that aim to raise brand awareness and increase leads via social media marketing.

The name for this platform was created by the founder’s now-wife, who came up with “Pinterest” back in 2009 – a mash-up between the word “pin” and “interest”. This sums up the role of the network perfectly – it allows you to virtually pin things of interest to you or your friends and create a visual, all-encompassing board out of them that you can revisit whenever you want.

The founder, Ben Silbermann, a former Google employee and Yale graduate, was working on a website with his friends that launched in private Beta in 2010. This later became Pinterest which over 320 million active users know and love today.

Why do people use Pinterest?

At its heart, Pinterest is a social network – it allows users to connect over shared ideas, passions, and hobbies. But the initial appeal of this platform lied heavily in its function as an Internet book-marker. Instead of having to crop out recipes or pictures from a magazine, users could now easily save and share their favorite outfits, shopping wishlists, craft projects, or recipe ideas.

The platform has since been used as a source of inspiration that is less focused on posting personal content and geared more towards collecting and comparing interesting ideas, products, and projects.