PINTEREST vs GENTLEMINT - A Battle of the Sexes?

Pinterest vs Gentlemint

Pinterest is a pinboard-style social photo sharing website and its one of the latest social media networks to take off. In February 2012 it was found to have attracted 10 million unique visitors and in May 2012 it became the third most popular social media networking site behind Facebook and Twitter but ahead of Google+, Tumblr and LinkedIn!

Pinterest allows users to create theme based image collections such as hobbies, interests,  info-graphics etc. Users browse the pins of others to look for inspiration or just to explore. Pinterest then allows its users to like the image or re-pin it to a wall of their own. When a user pins an image the social network allows them to attach a hyperlink and as such, many are using Pinterest as a platform to drive traffic to sites and blogs. 

Pinterest

Whilst Pinterest’s user interface shows no sign of being targeted towards one sex over another, in 2012 it was reported that 83% of US users were women. This user demographic is evident upon selecting the ‘Popular’ tab where you are likely to be met with craft ideas, clothing, nail art, recipes, images of cute pets/babies etc. Indeed, shopping inspiration has become such a predominant pin trend that Pinterest has introduced a ‘Gifts‘ section allowing users to search purchasable products by price, following a price tag applied by the Pinner.   

Gentlemint

So what about men? In response to the female-dominated Pinterest, Glen Stansberry and Brian McKinney, two US entrepreneurs, developed a testosterone fuelled alternative in 2011. Gentlemint is a Pinterest-inspired site for “manly men”. Whilst Gentlemint has a similar model to Pinterest it offers more male-targeted content including cars, facial hair, motorbikes, firearms, sports, power tools and weirdly, bacon. Indeed, to like an image users must first click on a mustache icon to reveal a like button! Ironically, however, as Gentlemint is G-rated you are more likely to find for example, bikini photos on Pinterest then on Gentlemint.

Whilst Gentlemint is not nearly as popular as Pinterest both sites will continue to grow as more and more people start using them and contribute towards the networks’ content. Both are encouraging brands to post on their sites and customers are faced with a new way of interacting with a brand through ‘pinning’ or ‘minting’ goods. Personally, in the battle between Pinterest and Gentlemint I believe Pinterest will be victorious. Pinterest’s development began in 2009, two years before Gentlemint’s, and as such they were able to capture the market. Also, women are the predominant users of social media in general and a male-targeted network is unlikely to present a large threat. 

It will be interesting to follow both sites progression into 2013 and how both compete against other competitors with photo-sharing based models such as Facebook and Twitter’s publishing platforms Instagram and Medium respectively.