After Lyft's highly anticipated IPO last week, the next tech "decacorn" that is up for listing is Pinterest, which has already made its S-1 filings public. In regards to evaluating Pinterest's business model and its rumored $12bn valuation, it helps to have a few different points of comparisons. Namely, Twitter and Snapchat serve as very natural reference points: they are all "smaller" social networks with a strong presence within their niche markets while also facing stiff competition from Facebook. To help interested investors decide whether they want to invest in Pinterest, we've put together the below comparative analysis to assess Pinterest's IPO prospects.

In order to justify its $12bn valuation and get investors excited about its stock, Pinterest is going to have to show not just a continued growth of its user base, but also strong monetization of its international users. For instance, Pinterest