--- title: "Top Trends of 2012: The Visual Web" date: 2012-06-27 author: "Richard MacManus" categories: - name: "ReadWriteWeb" url: "/category/readwriteweb.md" tags: - name: "2012" url: "/tag/2012.md" --- # Top Trends of 2012: The Visual Web ![](https://web.archive.org/web/20120725122707im_/http://www.readwriteweb.com/files/styles/150_150/public/instagram_camera_jun12.jpg) Continuing our mid-year review of the [top trends of 2012](https://web.archive.org/web/20120725122707/http://www.readwriteweb.com/tag/top+trends+of+2012/), in this post we look at the emergence of the [Visual Web](https://web.archive.org/web/20120725122707/http://www.readwriteweb.com/tag/visual+web). Two of the hottest products in the first half of 2012 are the best examples of this phenomenon: [Pinterest](https://web.archive.org/web/20120725122707/http://pinterest.com/) and [Instagram](https://web.archive.org/web/20120725122707/http://instagr.am/). But one or two swallows don’t make a summer. [Beautiful design](https://web.archive.org/web/20120725122707/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the-rise-of-beautiful-apps.php) is a key part of online business in this era, which has resulted in more images and video all across the Web. ## Pinterest: The Fastest Growing Social Network of 2012 There’s no doubt that image-based social network Pinterest has had a stellar year. [According to comScore](https://web.archive.org/web/20120725122707/http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2012/6/Latin_America_Leads_as_the_Most_Socially-Engaged_Global_Region), it now has a global monthly audience of nearly 30 million visitors. It was just under 12 million at the start of this year. comScore reports that Pinterest has [grown 4377%](https://web.archive.org/web/20120725122707/http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Presentations_Whitepapers/2012/State_of_US_Internet_in_Q1_2012) since its public launch in May 2011, with a steep uptick that started around December last year. Pinterest’s user base is skewed towards female users. Ben Hovaness of TBG Digital [did an analysis](https://web.archive.org/web/20120725122707/http://www.businessinsider.com/pinterests-traffic-data-reveals-its-biggest-weakness-2012-4?op=1) of this, using three different sources. Forget white, middle class males (cough), it looks like women are driving the Visual Web! ## Instagram: Helping Facebook Become The New Kodak ![](https://web.archive.org/web/20120725122707im_/http://www.readwriteweb.com/files/instagram_jun12a.jpeg) The biggest news story of 2012 so far was all about the Visual Web. On 9 April, [Facebook announced](https://web.archive.org/web/20120725122707/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebook_buying_instagram_makes_perfect_sense.php) it had acquired mobile photo sharing app Instagram for $1 billion. The deal was important to Facebook in two main ways: 1) it increased Facebook’s mobile presence, thanks to Instagram’s more than 30 million iPhone and Android users; and 2) it helped Facebook in its goal to become *the* place where people upload their photos. As ReadWriteWeb’s Kevin Kelleher memorably put it earlier this month when [Facebook bought another Visual Web startup](https://web.archive.org/web/20120725122707/http://www.readwriteweb.com/mobile/2012/06/facecom-facebook-reinvents-the-kodak-moment.php), face recognition company Face.com: “Facebook is cornering the market of what we used to call Kodak moments. They are becoming Facebook moments.” The Instagram success story points to a key reason why the Visual Web has ramped up this year: tens of millions of people now carry a high quality digital camera around with them everyday, in the form of smartphones like iPhone and Android devices. That’s led to a [huge increase](https://web.archive.org/web/20120725122707/http://liesdamnedliesstatistics.com/2012/05/the-importance-of-the-visual-web-some-stats.html) in online photographs, which Instagram savvily tapped into early. The Visual Web is about much more than Pinterest and Instagram. Blogging service [Tumblr](https://web.archive.org/web/20120725122707/http://tumblr.com/) continues to expand, driven by the quick, image-fueled blog posts of its users. [Visually stunning apps](https://web.archive.org/web/20120725122707/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/10-beautiful-apps-websites-to-drool-over.php) like Flipboard and 500px are also growing fast. It’s 2012, welcome to the Visual Web era. *Top image: [Socialmatic Camera](https://web.archive.org/web/20120725122707/http://www.indiegogo.com/socialmatic?c=home), found via (of course) [Pinterest](https://web.archive.org/web/20120725122707/http://pinterest.com/pin/269653096409112830/).* *Originally published on ReadWriteWeb ([archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20020204040018/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/top-trends-of-2012-the-visual-web.php))*