"I need to try this!": A statistical overview of Pinterest

Eric Gilbert, Saeideh Bakhshi, Shuo Chang, Loren G Terveen

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

89 Scopus citations

Abstract

Over the past decade, social network sites have become ubiquitous places for people to maintain relationships, as well as loci of intense research interest. Recently, a new site has exploded into prominence: Pinterest became the fastest social network to reach 10M users, growing 4000% in 2011 alone. While many Pinterest articles have appeared in the popular press, there has been little scholarly work so far. In this paper, we use a quantitative approach to study three research questions about the site. What drives activity on Pinterest? What role does gender play in the site's social connections? And finally, what distinguishes Pinterest from existing networks, in particular Twitter? In short, we find that being female means more repins, but fewer followers, and that four verbs set Pinterest apart from Twitter: use, look, want and need. This work serves as an early snapshot of Pinterest that later work can leverage.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationCHI 2013
Subtitle of host publicationChanging Perspectives, Conference Proceedings - The 31st Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Pages2427-2436
Number of pages10
DOIs
StatePublished - 2013
Event31st Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: Changing Perspectives, CHI 2013 - Paris, France
Duration: Apr 27 2013May 2 2013

Publication series

NameConference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings

Other

Other31st Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: Changing Perspectives, CHI 2013
Country/TerritoryFrance
CityParis
Period4/27/135/2/13

Keywords

  • CMC
  • Pinterest
  • Social network sites
  • Twitter

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