Kaboodle, StyleHive and many others captured the same concept years back, and Pinterest just adds more visual appeal to it.
I also wonder if the guys behind Pinterest are doing some sneaky things like creating fake users and making them Like your pins immediately after you create them. When I first started, I had a few people immediately follow me, and like some of my pins.. but then it died down as I continued to use it. I wouldn't be surprised.. my dopamine levels shot right up when I got an email notification than 3 ppl liked a pin of mine.
I can tell you they aren't doing anything funny. I have been pinning items from my site (I feel a bit of shame when I do this). Now that they have millions of users, your pin gets lost within millions of pins unless someone who has lots of followers repins you.
I have figured I could get around 1000 visits to my site daily from Pinterest by pinning around 200-300 items, assuming 10 of them become hits. But the traffic is not really sticky.
I also wonder if the guys behind Pinterest are doing some sneaky things like creating fake users and making them Like your pins immediately after you create them. When I first started, I had a few people immediately follow me, and like some of my pins.. but then it died down as I continued to use it. I wouldn't be surprised.. my dopamine levels shot right up when I got an email notification than 3 ppl liked a pin of mine.