Common sense would dictate that during a global pandemic everyone would be forced to stay at their homes/houses/apartments for work/school/leisure. And if that's true, it would make sense that those same people would want to improve their living room a little, right? Being indoors for so long can make you notice things that are broken, don't look right, aren't Feng Shui, need improving, maybe some light spring cleaning, etc.

But from the data we gathered on home decorating startup/online community Houzz ($PRIVATE:HOUZZ) and decor website Pinterest ($PINS), this is just not the case. Home improvement is clearly not a priority for most people, and both of these sites are suffering because of it.

Both websites help with landscaping, decorating, interior design, and more. Both have been around for more than a decade, and both had around 2,000 employees two years ago. Pinterest managed to grow that number 56%, while Houzz shrunk by 11% to under 2,000 staff members.

That's where the differences end and the similarities start to mount up. In 2020, Pinterest cut job openings by 37% and Houzz cut their listings by 53%. 

The most remarkable thing about each company, one private and the other public, is that Twitter interest has been flat for both. For a long while. The last two years either saw a decrease in followers or no gains whatsoever. Despite the impressive numbers, online engagement is just stuck at the same figure and will not budge. Even with so much time on their hands and nowhere to go, people just aren't interested in home management.

About the Data:

Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.

Further reading:

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