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For Pinterest the basis of their idea was the same as hundreds of other bookmarking sight. So, why did it work? Insight. Insight is what makes or break an idea.
Pinterest succeeded because they had an insight into an un-tapped market: women. Seriously, who better to leverage a bookmarking site than those already scrap booking, clipping coupons and sharing recipes… those reading magazines and cutting out articles. Sure, the success of Pinterest is due to other things as well (see quote from article below) but without the insight, it would just be a well built, pretty site that no one uses.
Pinterest succeeds on several layers of interaction. First, they maximize their content presentation with a masonry like layout and keep you interested for hours on end with infinite scrolling. Next, they carefully targeted and crafted a very specific user base that was both a huge potential source of users and a fairly untapped market in this space. This led to a solid foundation of daily content that defined Pinterest’s very identity. Finally, underneath it all is an instantly understandable metaphor and sharing platform that is wickedly viral and incredibly easy to pick up and use.
