Pinterest Says It Has 100 Million Monthly Active Users

For the first time in its five-year history, Pinterest has released its user total, and it’s a big round one: 100 million monthly active members.

That’s still well behind Twitter and Instagram’s 300 million+ and Facebook’s 1.5 billion, but Pinterest has been making the case that it should be considered less a social network and more a search and discovery service. It would rather be compared to Google and argues that because Pinterest users are uniquely interested and engaged with products, the platform is an especially good environment for marketers. Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that the company was pitching advertisers for a piece of their search advertising budgets.

Until today, the Pinterest audience could only be gauged by third-party estimates. In July, ComScore data pegged Pinterest with 76.2 million US visitors, an increase of 24 percent since last year. EMarketer’s forecast was significantly lower, predicting that the network would reach 47.1 million monthly active users by the end of 2015.

Today, Pinterest moved that number higher and shared more evidence to bolster its case as an effective place for advertising. It said 70 percent of its users engage with content on the network by saving or clicking on something; that the number of searches within Pinterest has increased 81 percent in the last year; and that two-thirds of the content that people Pin comes from business’ websites (a stat that the company has released previously).

“People are planning out really core and important parts of their lives on Pinterest,” Ben Silbermann, Pinterest’s chief executive and a co-founder, told the New York Times.

In the last year, Pinterest has been focusing on more ways for businesses to reach its audience. In January, it officially launched its Promoted Pin advertising product. It also added several new ad features, including a video ad unit. And in June, it rolled out Buyable Pins, a way for retailers to sell their goods directly on the network.

Here are some other growth and usage stats released by the company today:

• The number of Pinners doubled in the past 18 months.
• International users have doubled in the last year and make up about 45 percent of the total.
• People have created more than 130 million boards categorized as Home Decor that represent rooms people have or want to someday redecorate.
• People have created more than 180 million boards related to Food/Drink. Some of these are dinners that people will cook next week. Some are next year’s holiday dinner.
• There are nearly 300 million boards about fashion, created by Pinners looking to discover their sense of style.
• There are more than 30 million education boards created by teachers and parents helping kids learn in a more creative way.
• There are more than 296 million fashion boards.