Pinterest Surpassed Snapchat as No. 3 Social Media App in the US and Will Stay Ahead

Pinterest surpassed Snapchat as the third-biggest social media platform in the US in 2019, and it will continue to stay ahead in the coming years, according to our latest social user estimates.

In 2018, Snapchat edged Pinterest out slightly with 75.8 million users compared with Pinterest’s 75.5 million, despite the former having lost users due to a major redesign. The messaging app rebounded in 2019 with 80.2 million users after rolling out a successful Android app and introducing new virtual reality filters. But, in 2019, it was still surpassed by Pinterest, with 82.4 million users, after the visual platform had a successful year and IPO in April.

Pinterest saw 9.1% growth in 2019, a revision from our previous estimate of 4.3% growth. This year, it will have 86.0 million users, compared with Snapchat’s 83.1 million. The gap between the two platforms’ user bases will continue to grow through the end of our forecasting period in 2023.

“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,” eMarketer junior forecasting analyst Nazmul Islam said.

Pinterest’s users are more evenly represented across all age groups as a percentage of the general population, while Snapchat’s are much more skewed in the younger age groups.

Pinterest’s users will make up 41.1% of all US social network users in 2020, similar to Snapchat’s 39.7%. For this metric, we expect Snapchat to remain flat in 2021, but Pinterest will gain share slightly.

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