• CNN, Wednesday, March 14, 2012 12:48 PM

Pinterest is preparing to roll out new, “more beautiful" profile pages, which will more prominently display users' influencers. So said Ben Silbermann, co-founder and CEO of the popular photo-sharing site, at SXSW, this week. An iPad app is also in the works, Silbermann said. The developments, which might have been considered minor a year ago, are now big news in light of Pinterest’s buzzy prominence. As CNN reports, seeing Silbermann was one of the hottest tickets at the Austin conference. What’s the site’s secret to success?

"To me, boards are a very human way of seeing the world," Silbermann said during a Q&A with Hunch co-founder Chris Dixon. "It [Pinterest] is about helping people to discover things they didn't know they wanted -- things that feel like they've been handpicked just for you." Clearly hitting a nerve, Pinterest now has more than 11 million unique monthly users, according to recent numbers from Internet-monitoring firm comScore, and has more than doubled its audience over the past six months.

More impressive, the average Pinterest user spends about 98 minutes per month on the site -- more than any other social platform except Tumblr and Facebook, CNN notes.

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