Is this the end of Pinterest’s rapid rise?
ComScore data reported last week suggested a massive slowing in Pinterest’s growth: from an 85% monthly increase to mid-February to just 18% to mid-March.
This drop could have huge implications for the future of the social network. If accurate, it already means they have around 20 million users rather than the 30 million they’d have had if the 85% growth rate had continued. And these differences will only be compounded over time.
But relying on just one set of traffic stats can be dangerous. Do other indicators tell the same story about Pinterest’s growth rate?
1. Hitwise
Hitwise’s US data for the week ending 31st March 2012 show Pinterest.com with 0.91% of all social networking site visits. This is exactly the same as the site’s share for the previous week.
2. Google Trends
Looking at Google Trends data for the last 12 months, searches for “pinterest” seem to have grown rapidly until February, but appear to have dropped off since then.
Whilst not a direct indication of site visits, this drop in search volume does suggest that interest in Pinterest has declined lately. Interestingly, the data suggest a big spike in news mentions of Pinterest happened during the March decline in searches.
3. Alexa
Alexa’s traffic data for Pinterest.com show a steady growth in visits until February, then a general flattening-out since then.
Conclusion
The data suggest that Pinterest’s astonishing growth has indeed slowed significantly.
[Update: We've now created a page dedicated to Pinterest stats.]
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[...] as good a time as ever to grow a network. With its encouraging March numbers and early signs that Pinterest’s explosive growth is stagnating, don’t count Google+ out just yet. /* /* */ adroll_adv_id = [...]