Pinterest was called Tote before it adopted the Pinterest name in 2010.
Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra, and Evan Sharp developed the service that became Pinterest. The early product, called Tote, was conceived as a mobile shopping application that could help users browse product catalogs. The founders discovered that users were more interested in collecting and organizing images than in simply shopping.
That behavioral insight led to a major change in direction. The service became a visual discovery and bookmarking platform where users could save images to themed collections called boards. The name Pinterest combines the ideas of “pinning” and “interest,” matching the product’s central interaction.
Pinterest is sometimes described as a conventional social network, but its defining feature is visual discovery and curation. Users can save content from the service or from external websites, while businesses use pins to showcase products and drive traffic. The company was incorporated in 2009 and the Pinterest brand emerged during its early development.