[throwaway61891]

> Pinterest is essentially bookmarks for shopping

except they're trying to capitalize on the marketplace part too: https://about.pinterest.com/en/shopping-pinterest

> Certain Instagram networks are all about products

ditto: http://blog.business.instagram.com/post/152598788716/shoppin...

> former Etsy sellers who, once they achieved traction with their products, decided to build their brands on their own and not compete toe-to-toe with copycat sellers

yeah, this is etsy's real problem - they do a bad job of keeping top sellers on the platform. i haven't seen much attrition because of copycats, but more that etsy is just a really bad platform for managing a big shop. the fact that your sellers went to shopify is, to me, just evidence of that.