Pinterest could 'dwarf Twitter and Facebook'

Pinterest, the Internet's bulletin board, has such growth potential and such a strong appeal to advertisers that it's on the verge of becoming an "ad colossus" that could rival Facebook and even Google, according to a feverish treatise by Forbes.

Interesting that Pinterest hasn't even yet announced plans to go public, but Forbes showcases it on the cover of its Nov. 3 issue, which also touts the 50 Hottest Growth Stocks.

Not even five years old, Pinterest, with its emphasis on visual content, "accounted for nearly a quarter of all social sharing activity during the 2013 holiday season," is expected to have 40 million users this year, and already drives more traffic to Web publishers than any social network except Facebook, writes Jeff Bercovici.

"Many analysts and observers believe that, on the basis of average revenue per user, it's only a matter of time before Pinterest blows past Facebook, Twitter and the rest of the social pack," Bercovici says.

(Note the qualifier "average revenue per user." Facebook has 30 times as many users, so its total revenue will likely dominate Pinterest for many years.)

For advertisers, the great promise is reaching people, especially women, when they're first thinking about a purchase, indicated by, say, the posting of a photo of a wedding dress. Pinterest certainly has all sorts of photos of foods and fashions -- as well as its share of cute animals and sappy, er, inspirational sayings.

"How do we do for discovery what Google did for search?" cofounder Ben Silbermann  asks. "How do we show you the things you're going to love even if you didn't know what you were looking for? We think if we answer that question, all the other parts of the business will follow."

The wide-ranging article also delves into the lives of Pinterest's top guys and the kind of culture they've been nurturing to become an accelerating success.

Contact staff writer Peter Mucha at 215-854-4342 or pmucha@phillynews.com. Follow @petemucha on Twitter.