In 2012, Pinterest gained a lot of hype after comScore shared data showing that Pinterest was the fastest independent site to have more than 10 million monthly U.S. visitors. Suddenly Pinterest was kind of a big deal. Marketers took notice.
Four years later, Pinterest has reached a new milestone. The social bookmarking site has revealed that it now has 150 million monthly active users globally – 70 million of whom live in the U.S.
2016 Pinterest User Statistics
Last year, Pinterest announced it had 100 million active monthly users. That means Pinterest has grown its user base by 50 percent over the past year.
Eighty million of those users live outside the U.S. – and 75 percent of Pinterest’s new signups live outside the U.S., according to Pinterest’s announcement.
The company is still trying to push that idea that more men are using Pinterest, noting that 40 percent of new users are men, which is 70 percent more than a year ago. Remember when Pinterest tried to push this whole “men are flocking to Pinterest” idea a year ago, even launching search results by gender?
However, all of this also means that 60 percent of new signups are women. Which means the majority of Pinterest’s users still are, primarily, women.
Also, in case you were worried, we now know that more than half of U.S. millennials use Pinterest.
Pinterest vs. Social Networks
Although Pinterest’s user growth rate is solid, it’s been surpassed by the likes of Snapchat’s 150 million daily users, and Instagram’s more than 500 million active monthly users.
To be fair, Pinterest doesn’t actually consider itself a “social network.” Pinterest calls itself a “personal tool.”
“People don’t invite all their friends to join, and they don’t log in to see what their friends are doing (there are lots of other great places out there for that!),” according to Jon Kaplan, Head of Global Sales. “Instead, they come to Pinterest to discover and do the things they love, and learn a little bit more about themselves in the process.”
So Pinterest isn’t trying to compare itself to the Snapchats and Instagrams of the world – and definitely not Facebook, which sees 10x more users log in on a daily basis.
Still, with 150 million users, brands and businesses shouldn’t dismiss Pinterest outright. Check out ’s Pinterest marketing section to gain tips, best practices, and insights.
Image Credit: Pinterest
