Pinterest is reimagining its app for the TikTok era. Catering to Gen Z’s demand for video-focused features, the company on Tuesday announced it will now allow users to create short videos of their curated Pinterest boards, designed to be shared on social media.
The new addition was inspired by the video-sharing activity that was already taking place on apps like TikTok. In 2022, for example, Pinterest introduced a new collage-making app called Shuffles that quickly took off with Gen Z creators on TikTok. The app, still in invite-only mode at the time, went viral as Pinterest users published their so-called “aesthetic” collages and mood boards set to music and posted them on TikTok. Later, Shuffles inspired an official Pinterest feature for shoppable collages.
In addition, Pinterest users have been sharing their boards on apps like TikTok using more-manual methods, like posting screenshots or using the app’s green screen effects to share their curated collections, styles and individuality. Pinterest dubs this type of sharing the “mecore” trend, noting that it has seen a 565% increase in searches related to this activity on its platform annually. Boards titled “mecore” also increased by 255% since last year, it said.
With board sharing, Pinterest users will be able to share their boards in a more creative way on social media. The shared boards will also feature links that, when clicked, bring viewers back to the complete board on Pinterest where they can browse through or shop the collected content. To date, Pinterest users have created more than 10 billion boards.
The addition may inspire increased social sharing among Gen Z users, who are already drawn to Pinterest, and could serve as a way to increase traffic back to Pinterest’s app by leveraging the viral mechanics of platforms like TikTok and others.
The company partnered with power users and recording artists Avril Lavigne and Tierra Whack on the launch to showcase the new functionality, while also helping position the feature as a way for creators to reach their fans in new ways. Lavigne’s board includes fashion inspiration and promotes her tour, while Whack uses Pinterest for her eclectic interests and to gather inspiration for her creative projects.
To use the feature, just tap the share icon in the top right of any of your public boards to automatically generate a video. You can then click the “Add to Story” button or “Download” button to share the video anywhere else, like TikTok. If sharing to Instagram Stories, use the Stickers icon to find the Link sticker and then paste in the board’s URL.
You can also edit the board’s Pins or choose a different template before sharing, the company said.
“Gen Z makes up over 40% of our global monthly users on Pinterest and are our most engaged generation, with a significant increase in the number of boards created by Gen Z Pinners compared to last year,” noted Rachel Hardy, director of consumer product marketing at Pinterest, in a statement about the new addition. “We are enhancing the board features based on user feedback and, this year, board sharing is one of our critical investments as users value the ability to share their creative processes on different platforms and find inspiration from others.”
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