Analysts think Pinterest is set to provide Facebook and Google a mean run for their money, according Forbes. And if smart money is any indicator, the last round of funding that has poured into Pinterest shows the money moguls are onto something.

Pinterest has raised US$763 million in seven rounds of fund raising activities. The last round of US$200 million, in May 2014, was from FirstMark Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, and SV Angel. Analysts have placed it valuation around US$5 billion based on the capital raised.

The social network site, filled with millions of pretty pictures, was founded by Yale graduates Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra and University of Chicago graduate Evan Sharp.

What is Pinterest?

It is a free website which offers users a place to upload, save and sort images – known as “pins”, on “boards”. Boards are places where the user’s pins are located. Users can follow pins and boards, based on their preferences.

The most popular pin categories, are home (17.2%), arts and crafts (12.4%), style/fashion (11.7%), and food (10.5%) (The Data Point).

New Zealand on the Pinterest scale. Graph sourced from Semiocast

Here’s what you should know about Pinterest:

•  Over 80% of its users are women
•  It is already more popular than Twitter (which incidentally has a market capitalisation of over US$30 billion)
•  International users now make up nearly half of new sign-ups.
•  Pinterest’s users have created more than 750 million boards made up of more than 30 billion individual pins, with 54 million new ones added each day.
• Advertising is Pinterest’s only revenue line. 
• During the 2013 holiday season Pinterest accounted for nearly a quarter of all social sharing activity. Among social networks, only Facebook, with its 1.3 billion users, drives more traffic to web publishers.

And the big deal about Pinterest is…?

According to Forbes, analysts and observers believe that, “on the basis of average revenue per user, it’s only a matter of time before Pinterest blows past Facebook, Twitter and the rest of the social pack. “ Read full Forbes article here

Read about who are Pinterest’s users by Semiocast 

Pinterest users spend money vs Facebook? Article here

Why Pinterest is valued at US$5 billion