Researcher eMarketer is set to announce that Pinterest, the visual bookmarking service, will reach a projected 47 million active monthly users in the U.S. this year. This will then top 50 million by next year.
Depending on the accuracy of the projection it would still put Pinterest a significant distance behind Facebook, which was reported to have 128 million daily active users in the U.S. as far back as 2013. It’s also behind Twitter, which claimed to have 63 million active monthly users at the back end of 2014.
In contrast to eMarketer’s projection, comScore has placed Pinterest’s unique visitor number at 75.3 million in January of this year.
Debra Aho Williamson, an eMarketer analyst and author of the report, wrote in a statement. “[Pinterest’s] growth may be more limited than other services, simply because what you do on Pinterest — find and pin things that you like — isn’t necessarily something that large numbers of people may want to do.”
Williamson stated that Pinterest can and should be a valuable tool for marketers. Although Pinterest’s numbers could be better, Williamson is confident that the millions who do use it are doing so for retail purposes.
“Pinterest has a lot of work to do to become a major player in digital advertising,” Williamson added. “It must work quickly to increase its user base, and fill out its ad product suite, which at the moment is fairly limited.”
Having launched in 2010, Pinterest was years behind Facebook and Twitter. Although, it has steadily grown despite being constantly overshadowed by its more illustrious competitors.
Going live in 2013, Promoted Pins was Pinterest’s first paid advertising product. Since then it has worked with large advertising partners, such as Target and General Mill, improving audience targeting for advertisers.
Pinterest is reportedly interested in raising an additional $500 million of funding, being valued at $11 million. Among other innovations the company is planning a “buy” button to compete with Facebook and Twitter in the social commerce market.