oh, if only.

^ This may be the hardest I have ever laughed at something from Hacker News.

Context: joshu founded Delicious.

Or more neutrally (and accurately): delicious with pictures.

The userbase is 80% women, and the percentage of active users who are women is probably even greater. Not sure of the demographics of delicious, but I'd guess roughly the inverse.

Also, the fact that the userbase is mostly women is materially important in valuating the business, since female users are generally worth much more than male users.

The functionality of Pinterest is gender-neutral. What makes it "delicious for women", other than that more women (in the US) use it right now?

According to Wikipedia, more men than women use Pinterest in the UK (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pintrest#Demographics).

IIRC in the US women drive about 80% of purchases, meaning each female user is worth several times what each male user is worth. In terms of communicating the value of the business to investors, the fact that the userbase is mostly female is arguably the most important aspect of the site.

I've heard this figure cited before. Do you have a source? Also, is it true for online purchases, or just consumer spending in general?

I don't have a good cite, I believe it's supposedly all purchases though. Not sure how accurate it is, but my understanding is that sites with a lot of women do have vastly better clickthrough rates and conversion on their ads so it's not entirely apocryphal.

+1 scrapbooking is a fad, bookmarking is a sign of interest.

But I'd say Pinterest-style scrapbooking is a type of bookmarking, a visual style of bookmarking. And a lot of the things people get excited and interested in are at least in part visual: fashion, lifestyle goods, home and garden projects, wedding day stuff, arts and crafts, food and drink, cars etc.

I'm just looking at the comments on items on the Pinterest homepage: "Love this!", "WANT IT", "available now on Etsy", "Gift ideas", "can someone give me a link where i can buy it online". It's a veritable treasure trove of consumer information for people in the right markets. And it has just enough pictures of hot men, cute baby pictures and occasional silly memes to remain interesting.

Yes, it appeals more to women (and some gay men and arty types and so on), but in the right hands, it's a powerful tool for understanding and supplying the needs and wants of a significant market segment.

There's an interesting possibility for doing some kind of content partnership: imagine Pinterest TV, discussing all sorts of fashion and lifestyle stuff, with partnerships with existing media and retail brands - think Mumsnet or L'Oreal or Vogue or MTV...