Last Wednesday, Pinterest announced in an official blog post that the online pinboard is now open for everyone. As stated on the blog post:
“For those of you who haven’t joined Pinterest yet, this means you can sign up without waiting for an invite: all you have to do is go to Pinterest.com to get started. In addition to using Facebook or Twitter login, we’re also opening registration so you can sign up with just your email address.”
Prior to this, users had to click the “Request for an Invite” button first, before being able to create their account. After Pinterest dropped their invite-only approach, users can now sign in for the social photo-sharing site using their email address, Facebook or Twitter accounts.
Pinterest: History and Beyond
In addition to this, Pinterest announced last July that they’ve added new categories such as Quotes, Tattoos and Weddings. There are also old categories that were tweaked: Pets became Animals, while Prints and Posters is now Illustrations and Posters. It was also reported that the virtual pinboard improved its old categories, so that users see less mis-categorized pins.
Pinterest enables its users to organize and share images of their favorite things on the net. According to previous reports by Experian Hitwise, the social photo-sharing website is the third-largest social network in the US after Facebook and Twitter.
Earlier this year, researchers found out that Pinterest got 21.5 million visits during the weekend through January 28. In relation to this, the website has 60:40 ratio of women to men visitors. However, the report is only based on web traffic rather than unique visitors and mobile users.
In May, the virtual pinboard raised $100 million in a round of funding. In turn, the funding values Pinterest at $1.5 billion. It was led by the Japanese commerce giant Raukten with a $50 million investment. As stated by Raukten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani:
“We see tremendous synergies between Pinterest’s vision and Raukten’s model for e-commerce. Raukten looks forward to introducing Pinterest to the Japanese market as well as other markets around the world.”
As of the moment, Pinterest is looking to expand their overseas market, such as France, Germany and Japan. Previously, the online pinboard is enjoying a mainstream recognition in US, but is making a little headway abroad. The investment they’ve got from Raukten could open doors for Pinterest in Asia. To date, social photo-sharing site has raised $37.5 million in venture capital.
Source: Pinterest Home Page
