Snapchat has long been the dominant platform for young audiences, relying on disappearing messages and playful filters to attract teenagers and college students. However, that demographic is finite, and building a business around users who eventually outgrow the product has proven risky.
New data from eMarketer shows that Pinterest has moved into third place among U.S. social media platforms, ending 2019 with 82.4 million monthly active users in the United States. Snapchat closed the year at 80.2 million. Although the gap is narrow, the growth trajectories are markedly different.
Pinterest added 6.9 million U.S. users over the course of 2019, while Snapchat added fewer than one million. eMarketer’s final quarterly report, released on January 19, highlights that Pinterest’s 9 percent surge erased the lead Snapchat held at the start of the year. The researcher’s model indicates that Pinterest gained users across every adult age bracket, with the fastest growth occurring among Americans aged 35 and older.
In contrast, Snapchat remained concentrated in the 13-to-24 age range and lost marginal share in the 25-to-34 segment. The implications for advertising revenue are significant. Snapchat has spent years convincing advertisers that its young, hard-to-reach audience commands premium prices. That argument works only when the audience is expanding.
When growth stalls, the pitch weakens. Pinterest, meanwhile, has quietly built a case that its users arrive with buying intent.
Throughout 2019, the company focused on turning inspiration into shopping opportunities. Features such as Lens visual search, Shop the Look pins, and a redesigned catalog upload tool allowed merchants to turn each post into a checkout option. Pinterest also broadened its content mix by encouraging creators to upload short DIY videos. eMarketer forecasting analyst Nazmul Islam noted in the report that the shift is less about Snapchat losing fans and more about Pinterest expanding the definition of a social network.
“While Snapchat has a young core audience that it caters to, Pinterest has a more universal appeal, and it’s made significant gains in a wide range of age groups,” Islam said. Pinterest launched in 2010 as a virtual pinboard for recipes and home décor, and that function remains.
However, the company has repositioned itself as a visual search engine with integrated shopping capabilities. Users come to plan weddings, renovate kitchens, and find outfits. They are not simply passing time; they are making decisions.
That level of intent is valuable to retailers and advertisers, and it is something Snapchat, despite its cultural cachet, has never replicated at scale. The demographic data underscores the shift.
Pinterest added 6.9 million U.S. monthly active users during the year, while Snapchat added fewer than one million. Pinterest’s consistent double-digit percentage gains in every quarter erased Snapchat’s lead by December, giving the pinboard a third-place position with 82.4 million users versus Snapchat’s 80.2 million. For Snapchat, the challenge is not existential.
The app retains a loyal young core, but that core is not expanding. Advertisers follow growth.
If Pinterest continues adding seven million users annually while Snapchat adds one million, the gap will widen. Snapchat’s path forward requires retaining older users or watching the rankings shift further.
