Pixiv: The newest trend in social networking!

You should forget Facebook and Twitter! The latest trend, created in Japan, is the new website on which upcoming and talented artists can post/show their creations.

Welcome to Pixiv, the largest online gallery in the world! Since 2007, this “social illustration site”, is continuing to amaze. The site, which let users’ present self-made drawings and paintings to other users and offers a number of basic social networking functionalities, now counts a whopping 1.5 million members.

The following image shows you how a typical ‘Pixiv-page’ looks like:


Note: Pixiv is a website all in Japanese, but can still be used by speakers of other languages with a little effort and a little help.

The website is meant for the submission of original artworks, but it is also possible to build a social network, along with following your favorite artists and bookmarking the images you love. There is a bulletin board system to post comments on others' boards, and a message system for short notes to other artists.

Let’s show you some impressive numbers: The service was established in September 2007. The user base of Pixiv stood at 100.000 users in March 2008. Furthermore, in June 2009, the website had already 1 million members, which means that they gained a half million people in about six months! Therefore, it took only 838 days to go from zero to 1.5 million members.

Currently, Pixiv racks up 1 billion page views a month, up from 720 million monthly, half a year ago). Members of this website post 18.000 drawings/paintings per day!

Spectacular isn't it...