Thursday, May 23, 2013

Business Model Canvas - Pinterest



The following is an executive summary for Pinterest that I have prepared using the Business Model Canvas tool.   

 
Executive Summary Pinterest

Current Status: Launched in 2010 by Ben Silbermann, Pinterest currently has over 50 million users and one of the fastest growing websites in the world. 

Summary of Business: Pinterest provides users with their own online cork board; a place to collect a share their favorite things. Additionally it provides business with an online cork board to highlight promotions, best products, and work. 

Customer: The primary customer is wide reaching. Using Pinterest is easy and anyone with a basic understanding of web browsing or social media use can use. Pinterest users skew towards the 15 – 30 years old, however use among the 30 – 40 year old crowd is also common. Women tend to be more active users, and “pin” more frequently than men.[1]

Value Proposition: Pinterest is the place users can collect their favorite things, share ideas, and generate new ones. Users can better organize and connect with people around the things that interest them most. From the business perspective Pinterest gives retailors and commercial businesses specific insight into their customer wants and needs. 

Products: The main product for users is an online board for collecting one’s favorite things. On the business side products can range from paid advertisements to specific customer information.  

Market Advantage: The primary advantage of Pinterest is that it is easy and mindless, in a good way, to use. Unlike Facebook or Twitter where users actually have to think of new content, Pinterest users don’t have to think, they only have to feel. Nor does the content need to be current, it can be both past or current. In addition the information collected via Pinterest is specific and focused. On Facebook one might like the company Seven Jeans. But, on Pinterest one could “like” modern, dark denim, boot-cut jeans on a barefoot person walking on the beach. As a user’s Pinterest board grows and develops a clear picture of that users tastes and interests starts to form. 

Issues: The web, and social media specifically, is fast paced and highly competitive. Whether it be user fatigue, as Facebook is experiencing, failure to develop new popular products, as Zynga is experiencing, or new site competition like IHeartIt, staying in front of users is always an issue and can quickly hurt a sites popularity. Pinterest can however mitigate this issue because of its simple to uses interface and the fact that it relies primarily on photo sharing; a concept that has existed since the camera was first built.   

Revenue Streams: Current revenue streams are limited. However, there is the potential to make money through ad revenue and the deep customer insight collected through user pin boards.  
Channels: Reaching customers continues to get easier and easier with the continued growth of smartphones, tablets, and overall computer usage. 

Strategic Partners: VC Firms and Business customers

Competitors: Key competitors are Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo, YouTube, IHeartIt. Though none of these companies offer the same product as Pinterest, these companies do reach huge audiences and have the potential to change or add new services. Additional competition is from the next new company; the rise to success in this industry can happen fast, a couple years in some cases. The next potential competitors may not even exist. 

Company Metrics
Full Time Employees: 80+
Users: 50M +
Re-Pins: Over 80% of pins are re-pinned, by contrast only 1.4% of tweets are retweeted [2]
Unique Users Per Day: 4M/
Estimated Company Value: $2.5B

Revenues & Profits: The fast growth and feverish interest in Pinterst will continue to drive users and provide unique in depth information on users. Developing revenue models is a work in progress; however it is clear that the information collected through Pinterest is valuable to commercial businesses and certain users. Developing ways to monetize this information without hurting the user base is being developed.


[1] http://socialmediatoday.com/leaderswest/1415581/study-women-get-more-re-pins-pinterest-men-get-more-followers
[2] http://blog.rjmetrics.com/pinterest-data-analysis-an-inside-look/

1 comment:

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