The importance of visual content today cannot be underestimated; it defines the brand, publication, and influencers' image. In the traditional division of media content into verbal and visual, there is a clear trend towards the dominance of non-verbal content. Finding inspiration is a crucial and energy-consuming process, and that's where Pinterest comes into play—a kind of moodboard and a social service that allows users to collect and organize images online in thematic collections. If you're not already on Pinterest, there's no excuse. The rapid growth of the company is astonishing, and today, Pinterest is the choice of designers and fashion houses, including us.

Ahead of the upcoming Fashion Tech Summit, the FWD editorial team had the opportunity to ask a few questions to a representative from the company. We discussed working with artificial intelligence, how brands can maximize their benefits from Pinterest, and popular queries.

Q: There is a statistic that 70% of people have used Pinterest to find makeup ideas and looks. How significant is Pinterest's impact on the fashion and beauty industry?

This information is outdated. Here are some updated statistics about Pinterest on a global level:

Over 200 million monthly active users worldwide.

More than half of pinners are outside the US.

More than 75% of pinners are outside the US.

Year-over-year monthly growth in active male users is over 50%.

Over 100 billion pins and 3 billion boards on the platform.

80% of all pinners access Pinterest via mobile devices.

Worldwide, there are over 1.5 million businesses on Pinterest.

Over 10 billion personalized recommendations are generated every day.

Regarding the importance of fashion on Pinterest at a global level:

Fashion is the #1 category on Pinterest, alongside food, with 21 billion pins or ideas available.

In 2017, there were 2 billion searches and 528 million ideas related to fashion on Pinterest.

84% of Pinterest users consider fashion and personal style meaningful to them.

The volume of men's fashion-related ideas saved on Pinterest grew by 80% year over year.

70% of Pinterest users search, save ideas, and create boards related to fashion at least once a week.

In the women's fashion category, shoes are the most popular with 300 million saved ideas.

Q: Pinterest works with artificial intelligence. What features of it do you use?

Pinterest is a visual search tool used for daily projects or important life events, from inspiration to action. Pinterest offers a unique form of search based on a "flavor" diagram. Through a combination of human curation, computer vision, machine learning, and AI, we provide users with personalized recommendations based on their taste. We curate about 10 pins for each interaction from over 100 billion available on the platform.

At Pinterest, we believe in the future of visual search, with over 600 million visual searches per month, up 70% year-over-year. We are focused on computer vision and deep learning to continuously enhance the user experience.

Q: How can brands use Pinterest wisely to get the most out of it?

A high-performance strategy on Pinterest revolves around three pillars:

Domain: Implement a "save" button on your brand's website or blog so that visitors can save your content to their Pinterest boards, allowing new audiences to discover your content. For instance, Sephora added a "save" button to tens of thousands of product photos on Sephora.com, coinciding with the launch of an email campaign promoting Sephora products. This resulted in a 60% increase in traffic to Sephora's website thanks to Pinterest.

Profile: Create a Pinterest profile with the same identity and positioning as your brand. Optimize your content (pins and boards) with SEO. For example, Made.com created boards on the latest design trends and utilized colorful vertical pins with basic product information, resulting in a 36% increase in traffic and a 51% increase in conversions.

Communication: Promote your brand's presence on Pinterest to your audience through various channels. For instance, Conde Nast Group mentioned their magazines' presence on Pinterest in their Vogue and Glamour newsletters, incorporating a call to action such as "Find us on Pinterest" or linking to specific content. Pinterest now accounts for 8% of Glamour's total traffic (organic and paid).

Q: Pinterest was once perceived as a social network for housewives, but it's now seen as an influential source of inspiration. What are the company's prospects moving forward?

Pinterest is no longer just a "social network for housewives." It has evolved into a visual search tool, akin to a search engine rather than a social network. The platform's core audience spans various demographics and includes a significant number of men (with annual growth in active male users at 50% and over 40% male registrations).

We are committed to helping users find and act on their interests, whether it's finding recipe ideas, planning party looks, preparing for travel, or shopping for a wedding. We are dedicated to building the #1 visual search tool.

Q: What queries on Pinterest are of interest to people living in Europe?

Key categories globally include topics like fashion, beauty, food, home, and travel. While some categories, such as food, seek local content or ideas, fashion shows interest in both local and global content from brands, publications, influencers, and bloggers. Certain categories may be more prominent in specific markets; for instance, arts, culture, and education are highly popular categories in France.

Q: How does Pinterest help predict trends?

Every time a user searches, saves a pin, or creates a board, they send us a signal of their interest. With over 200 million active users, we have an extensive database of interest signals across major categories. We use this data to create trend reports, month after month or year after year. For example, we release the Pinterest 100 at the end of each year, which lists the top 100 trends that will emerge in the following year.

Q: Pinterest is a favorite social media platform among Gen Z. How much is it integrated into the lives of Gen Z, and does it influence their preferences?

While I don't have specific data to share, Pinterest is indeed very popular among Gen Z users. They use Pinterest to discover ideas they want to implement in their lives at some point.

Q: What is the future of fashion, and how will it intersect with technology?

I'm not the right person to speculate on the future of fashion, but I believe that visual search will make it easier for everyone to discover and integrate new fashion ideas into their lives. Recently, we launched Lens—a camera integrated into our app that simplifies searching. Imagine seeing someone on the street wearing a jacket you love. With Lens, you can take a picture of it, and our technology will recognize the item and show you related pins, allowing you to find different variations or even purchase it through a linked pin on a commercial website.

Q: How has Pinterest shaped the fashion industry?

Millions of users turn to Pinterest to discover fashion ideas, save them to their boards, and then bring those ideas to life through their own style choices and purchases.

The Fashion Tech Summit 2018 (August 31 - September 2, 2018) introduces a new format of educational events aimed at creating a quality platform for the fashion and tech industries to collaborate. During the summit, Pinterest's Regional Director for Europe, Adrien Boyer, will be a speaker, sharing insights into the company's role in shaping the fashion industry and discussing the platform's future.