Manterest

I’ve been impressed with the meteoric rise of the website Pinterest. Recently its traffic ranked it as the third most visited social networking site behind only Facebook and Twitter. Impressive for the new kid on the block.

If you’re living under a rock and haven’t yet heard of it, you should visit -www.pinterest.com. It is a website where people (read women) can upload, save, organize, and manage photos, called “pins.” These pins are mostly pictures are of wedding dresses, rings, shoes, desserts, jewelry, clothes, princesses, and butterflies … you know, things women like. 

Visitors and members can browse the enormous online catalogue of photos, and like, comment, or share them by “re-pinning” to Facebook or other sites.

The idea of Pinterest itself is brilliant. It gives women the opportunity to look at pictures of jewelry they can’t afford, desserts they can’t eat, celebrities they could never date (or look like) – basically the lives they will never have. The timing, perhaps not coincidentally, was impeccable. Once the economy crashed, households around the U.S. were forced to cut back on spending and resort to window shopping. Enter Pinterest.

As I alluded to earlier, an extreme percentage – almost 85% - of members and traffic are women.  Given the sex bias in traffic, the popularity of the website is even more remarkable. I’m sure it’s obvious to those crafty entrepreneurs who started Pinterest , but I see a “glass ceiling” in the growth of the website.

Enter Mantrest, the manly boyfriend of Pinterest. As it stands, Pinterest needs to attract men to continue its growth. What would Mantrest look like? Here it is:

 
In reality, a male-dominated Pinterest would quickly degenerate into a hybrid of ESPN and Playboy. But that could be pretty popular.

Mantrest. Pinterest for men. The next big thing.