Designed much like a bulletin board or pin-board you may have seen in the halls of your college classroom building, and utilizing the same photo-sharing social processes that have driven earlier communities like Vine and Reddit to similar lofty heights, Pinterest has entered what was considered a market already too crowded for new competitors. Indeed, at the pinnacle of the social media stratosphere stands Facebook (and to a lesser extent, Twitter), a shining example of constant innovation and ahead-of-the-curve thinking.
So how does a small fish in a pond created by a shark make a name for itself, let alone grow to a community that now includes tens of millions of unique visitors each day? By harnessing one of the most important lessons any new entrepreneur can learn when attempting to break their business into a market full of established competition; finding a niche (and an associated untapped market segment) and exploiting it to the fullest.
In this case, Pinterest identified that many female users of sites like Facebook were repeatedly sharing and commenting on consumer products, event-related images like wedding photos and dresses, and a variety of other trends, fashions, and consumer items. Coupling this realization with a slickly designed user interface, that allows users to simply “pin” images they like to personal “boards” that they can share with fellow users, Pinterest has since exploded among its target demographic; young, motivated, and outgoing young women, a market demographic that causes social media gurus and marketing executives to slaver at the mouth with long term monetary potential.