Pinterest’ entrance into the social media arena had many of us thinking “why didn’t I think of that!” Now ranking number three on the list of most popular social media, the origin of Pinterest is being questioned.

Launched in March 2010, Pinterest compares to the direct similarities of its Brazil equivalent known as WeHeartIt, established in 2008.

WeHeartIt – Pinterest Similarities:

• Buttons: “Heart it” – “Pin it” allow you to attach Web content to your profile
• Preferences: “Hearts” – “likes” identify your favorites
• Image grouping: “Sets” – “boards” classify your favorite images into subjects
• Uploading: “image” – “pin” original content addition

In 2011, the WeHeartIt site had 460 million page views with 7.7 million uniques – far greater than Pinterest at 91 million page views and 1.5 million uniques.

All is fair in the age of fast paced tech business and the trophy goes to the company with the best social media strategy. With more similarities than differences, Pinterest is using its business savvy to differentiate its business model.

It’s obvious that Pinterest is the more polished of the two with a beautifully designed platform. The clean, no frill, user-friendly approach is appreciated by its 20 million+ users and has become addictive to its 60/40 woman to man ratio.

The explosive growth of Pinterest is directly attributed to its ability to generate investor financing. The creators of WeHeartIt turned down investors choosing steady growth driven by strategic ad revenue.

Investor funds have allowed Pinterest to develop a huge lead over WeHeartIt in their user statistics. Now valued at $1.5 billion, Pinterest boasts more than two billion page views and 34.5 million monthly uniques.

The focus is now on the future of both companies. The main question directed at Pinterest and WeHeartIt is in the sustainability of their business models.

The Facebook bubble influenced many analysts to question the true meaning of valuation and the basis of a company’s true worth. In the case of Facebook (News - Alert), millions of unique visits and astronomical registered user figures did not necessarily add up to tangible value.

The owners of WeHeartIt are now considering outside investors. Pinterest and WeHeartIt share another resemblance: they both recognize that at the end of the day they are a business and their survival will depend on their ability to generate revenue.

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