Most of Pinterest's users are women; this we know. But as the visual social network grows and matures, its audience composition is actually becoming more and more female, to a remarkable degree, according to a new analysis of public data by RJMetrics.
In terms of total users, women outnumber men on Pinterest by four to one, a pretty overwhelming imbalance. By comparison, Facebook and
But while Instagram has been moving toward a more even split over time, Pinterest seems to be heading in the opposite direction. The percentage of pins (the primary form of user activity) made by men has been declining steadily over the past three years.
That means activity on Pinterest is even more female-driven than the service's audience composition suggests: 92% of pins are made by women, and they account for 94% of all activity, up from 87% in 2011.
Men are substantially more likely to stop being active users, with a 50% attrition rate over four years. Among women, 84% are still active after that period.
And where women become more active pinners over time, men, on average, peak in year two and then slack off.
What does this mean for Pinterest as a company? Nothing bad, at least not for the present. Dense audience composition is a plus for advertisers in many categories, especially the ones where Pinterest users are most active -- food, home decor, fashion & beauty.
If it wants to go after other categories like financial services and automotive, it will probably have to figure out some way to court the other 49% of the population. (The recent introduction of user-created custom categories might be one way to start doing that.) But seeing as Pinterest only started charging advertisers for the first time within the last few weeks, that's probably not much of a concern just yet.
On the flip side, basically all of Pinterest's growth to date has come from only one half the market. If it can find a way to attract and keep men, look out.
