Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) Shareholder Meeting Raided by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT) Employees

Flickr versus Instagram

I believe that Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) could be again some competition in picture sharing. The company is heavily exposed to the potential downside of owning Instagram. Just recently it was able to fend off Twitter’s video-sharing network, Vine. Vine is a social application that allows users to share extremely short clips. Instagram released a similar feature recently. Based on initial statistics, the video- sharing application has had very little penetration, which is a little worrisome for me.

Going forward, Flickr could win the hearts of photo enthusiasts. Not everyone wants to take a picture of their own face, the food they eat, and the car they drive. People want variety, and one photo-sharing service that provides a bit of a professional feel to it is Flickr. This is going to put downward pressure on Instagram as it has lost a bit of photo traffic because of the social pressure it has brought onto its user base by providing a short video-clip feature.

Analysts on a consensus basis remain fairly optimistic of the company’s earnings growth. Of course, this earnings growth isn’t driven by Instagram. Rather it has more to do with rising advertising spending, along with international user growth. The company is projected to grow earnings at a 28.3% rate over the next five years.

Conclusion

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) had a lot of positive things to say at its conference. The company has built stronger products, which has driven the positive audience metrics. It is hoping to grow its earnings significantly over the longer term. Meanwhile, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) is a compelling investment opportunity, and knowing that Mayer serves on the board of directors for Wal-Mart should give investors an added level of reassurance. I also believe that Flickr could give Instagram a good run for its money.

The article Yahoo! Shareholder Meeting Raided by Wal-Mart Employees originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Alexander Cho.

Alexander Cho has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Facebook. The Motley Fool owns shares of Facebook. Alexander is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network — entries represent the personal opinion of the blogger and are not formally edited.

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