It seems that the Pinterest bubble has already burst after a meteoric rise in popularity in January and February as the new figures show that the photo-sharing site is unexpectedly losing users this month.
The majority of Pinterest users sign up through Facebook and the number of people doing this has significantly dropped in the past few months, according to data collected by the Business Insider.
Pinterest works as a “timeline app” within Facebook, allowing Facebook users to use one log-in across both and share “pins” – Pinterest’s term for posts – via a Facebook page.
AppData, which monitors how often users of third-party apps and other web sites interact with Facebook, has shown the site’s decline.
Pinterest’s growth slowed last month and it is now revealed that users are turning away from the network, which was launched in March 2010.
Monthly active users are down from 11.15 million on April 1 to 8.3 million today.
With endorsements from President Barack Obama and Mark Zuckerburg the picture-sharing program that allows users to essentially create “vision boards” of their favorite things, was quickly labeled the social media craze of 2012.
It is speculated that the people who signed up to the site simply to try out the latest fad have now decided that it is not for them.
However, Pinterest may not need to worry just yet – after a media frenzy and celebrity support the site’s traffic soared up by 50% from January to February.
And by the beginning of April it was declared the third most popular social network based on visits from American users coming after only Facebook and Twitter.
This surge in popularity meant Pinterest has more visitors than established social media giants like LinkedIn, Tumblr, and the continually-flailing Google+.
Unlike many other sites, Pinterest has a much clearer demographic make-up, with female users accounting for 60% of users. The site’s focus is largely on sharing interior design sites and recipes.
Pinterest has an exclusivity model which calls for users to request invitations, or be invited by friends, and while it does still extend those invitations to whomever wants one, the company does make the desperate wait to log on for two or three days before they can start highlighting their interests.
