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It’s no secret that image-related social networks have rocket launched in popularity the past couple years. With the likes of Pinterest, Instagram, Pheed and Snapchat, can there possibly be room for another player in this space? When considering We Heart It, the answer might indeed be a huge yes.
Big dog network, Facebook, and it’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg will probably never admit the billion dollar giant has a teenager problem and that is a key motivator for market newcomers. I also daresay that Instagram and Snapchat are not quite the same as networks like Pinterest and We Heart It. According to Mashable, board member Alex Rosen claims that Pinterest is more product oriented while We Heart It aims to be more inspirational. The new social network also boasts that it has already attracted more than 15 million users under the age of 24, a coveted demographic. Both Mashable and Wikipedia have detailed narratives that better describe the network’s history and bio, so I won’t bore you with those details.
We’re avid users of Pinterest. In fact, when I initially began interacting with Pinterest, I was absolutely amazed by it’s discovery element. Searching immediately became fun and enjoyable again while Google seems more utilitarian to me (which isn’t a bad thing). People are beautifully sharing links making this a search engine, or discovery engine, that is social by nature. Whether We Heart It will truly rise to the likings of Twitter and Pinterest remains to be seen, but so far it’s intriguing enough for PrintKEG to take it for a test drive. If you’ve signed up, we’d love to connect with you!
So what exactly is We Hear It? We Heart It is an image-based social network focused on inspiration, expression and creativity. The service boasts a community of over 20 million global monthly unique visitors using We Heart It to discover, collect and share images with friends through its mobile apps and website. We Heart It is adding a million registered users per month, 2/3 of whom are mobile users. The company has raised more than $8 million in funding and is located in San Francisco, California.
We Heart It allows users to add a heart icon to the browser bar enabling “hearting” capabilities of any image or link found on the web (similar to Pinterest’s “Pin It” button). Each active user can add art/photos from any computer or device while creating personal and public collections (like boards?). Yes, by description, We Heart It sounds a lot like Pinterest, but while actually engaging, I felt the experience very unique.
PrintKEG has not added WeHearIt to our social networks page since we can’t commit to participating on a long term basis until getting our hands dirty. As lovers of social networks, our little print company will report if our brand decides to do more with We Heart It.
