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Business

Can Pinterest win over ‘Facebook nation’?

admin
November 12th, 2013


This article is more than 11 years old.

The online pinboard network is going international and now has a local version for Danish users

Online pinboard Pinterest launched a Danish version of its website today.

"We want to keep improving Pinterest experiences for people in Denmark so they can discover the things they love," the head of Pinterest, Matt Crystal, told Børsen financial daily.

The translation of the site has been done by its users in Denmark.

"Right now we are experimenting with user translations and think it is a great opportunity to make our best pinners part of the development," Crystal explained.

The launch of a site in Danish is part of the company's ambition to go from ten local versions to 30 by the end of 2014. 

Few users in Europe
Since the site was founded in 2010, Pinterest has been riding on a wave of success that has seen its number of users reach 53 million in just three years. The photo-sharing network experienced its highest rise in 2013, growing by 88 percent, according to internet market research firm Global Web Index.

But the European market is where most social media usually have the hardest time breaking through. Only three percent of European internet users are active on Pinterest, compared to 17 percent in the US.

Facebook nation
Although the company wouldn't reveal details about the number of its Danish users, it is fair to assume that there aren't that many, said Jonathan Wichmann, a social media advisor at ad agency Wiibroe, Duckert & Partners.

"It is not very popular here. Denmark is unfortunately a Facebook nation and we only use a small range of the social media available compared to other countries," Wichmann told Børsen. "Pinterest is more visual and accessible than Facebook and has shown a rapid growth in the US lately, especially among middle-aged women interested in fashion, food and lifestyle."

READ MORE: Social media event shows that Danes love Facebook but lag behind on Twitter

Crystal is convinced that there is a market for Pinterest here and that the company just has to know how to promote itself.

"Danes are among our most enthusiastic users, so there is a solid foundation to start from," he told Børsen. "We think there is potential for far more users."


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”