Pinterest Courts Gen Z With Video Sharing Feature

Pinterest has begun letting users share videos of their favorite boards to other social platforms.

That’s due to a new feature called board sharing, designed to court the world’s youngest and most-digitally engaged generation.

“Gen Z makes up over 40% of our global monthly users on Pinterest and are our most engaged generation, with a significant increase in the number of boards created by Gen Z Pinners compared to last year,” Rachel Hardy, director of consumer product marketing at Pinterest, said in a Tuesday (June 25) news release.

“We are enhancing the board features based on user feedback and, this year, board sharing is one of our critical investments as users value the ability to share their creative processes on different platforms and find inspiration from others.”

Gen Z users, the company argues, use Pinterest as “a space for self-discovery and expression,” which has led to a phenomenon dubbed “mecore.”

Searches around “mecore” have jumped by 565% year over year on Pinterest, the company has said, while boards with the title “mecore” have increased by 255% since last year.

Pinterest’s assertions about digital engagement among members of Gen Z are borne out by the latest edition of PYMNTS “How the World Does Digital” report.

The research from that report shows that Gen Z consumers engaged in 23.5 digital activities per month, compared to 9.6 per baby boomers. Video streaming, meanwhile, was the most popular type of digital activity, with nearly 60% of all consumers engaging in it at least weekly.

Other platforms are also making efforts to reach out to these younger users. For example, Facebook said late last month that it had seen the highest growth among young adult users in three years, with the company making changes to its core product to help them with things like dating, shopping and job hunting.

And it’s not just social media platforms courting Gen Z. Additional research by PYMNTS Intelligence finds that 62% of financial technology companies (FinTechs) are developing products with Gen Z consumers in mind.

However, roughly 70% of FinTechs also say Gen Z consumers just do not make enough deposits to justify the effort to attract their business.

“Yet, this demographic group would appear to be an ideal segment for FinTechs to pursue,” PYMNTS wrote recently.

“After all, Gen Z is made up of predominantly digital-first consumers who value the convenience of mobile banking and digital payments, something many FinTechs recognize.”