Development of Pinterest began in December 2009, and the site launched as a closed beta in March 2010. The site proceeded to operate in invitation-only open beta. In December 2011, the social media channel became one of the top 10 largest social networks services, according to Hitwise data.

Inside Pinterest

Pinterest started with 20 employees + Co-founders. A year later, the CEO Ben Silbermann, was building up employee ranks. Now, the company headcount is over 100 employees from engineering and design to marketing to community, they must be social media oriented.

Pinterest hits 10 million U.S. monthly uniques faster than any standalone site ever.

For most of last year, the online scrapbooking site was racing to keep up with a growth eruption that took global user visits to its website to 48 million in December, up from 9 million a year earlier.

Pinterest Growth By comScore

Pinterest InternationalExpansion

Pinterest Social Network• Germany ranked first with a rise of over 2956% visitors to the

site between 2011 and 2012. Also, the site had 67,000 unique visitors in January 2012.

• Spain ranked second with a rise of 1348 percent during the time period, with 62,000 people visiting the site in January 2012.

• Pinterest grew nearly 80 percent in the UK and by some distance it was the largest market for Pinterest.com with 245,000 unique visitors in January 2012.

Value ofPinterest Inc.

The company's continued growth, engagement and business potential has attracted growing interest from investors.

The company last raised $100 million in a May 2012 financing led by Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten Inc.

Pinterest Funding Led by Fidelity Values Startup at $3.8B. Fidelity Investments total funding to Pinterest was $565 million and boosts its valuation from $2.5 billion during a February (2013) financing round.

Pinterest beat its next-closest competitor, LinkedIn, in total visits in February. Pinterest closest competitors ranks in 2013

1. Facebook: 7 billion

2. Twitter: 182 million

3. Pinterest: 104 million

4. LinkedIn: 86 million

5. Tagged: 72 million

6. Google+: 61 million

Pinterest Drives More ReferralTraffic than..

PinterestAn Effective Merger of Social and E-commerce

Pinterest is one of the top drivers on retail traffic referral.

Many businesses said they are eager for more tools and services from

Pinterest. The lately features that trigger

sales consumption are mobile notifications,

tracking specific pins, notification price-setting

.

Pinterest Web Analytics!

Pinterest Web Analytics helps businesses and website owners understand how pinners are

engaging with their content.

Pinterest has created a team of four people

whose job it is to interact daily with

companies, learning about what is working

and what is not online. Also, the

company rolled out "business" accounts that allow companies to use their corporate

name on their pinboard and to

verify that they link to an official

corporate website.