Yahoo! Enters the Local Marketing Arena

Yahoo! is partnering with Web sites like Groupon, LivingSocial, Gilt City and others to provide a wide selection of local deals, coupons and more from nearby restaurants and other local retailers.
By Trefis ,

NEW YORK (Trefis) -- Yahoo! (YHOO) recently announced the launch of Local Offers, a program for users looking for the best local deals, news and events in their area. Yahoo! is partnering with Web sites like Groupon, LivingSocial, Gilt City and others to provide a wide selection of local deals, coupons and more from nearby restaurants and other local retailers. The move will allow Yahoo! to compete with Google (GOOG) - Get Report, AOL (AOL) and Facebook, which already have a head start in the market.

Yahoo! Enters the Local Arena Amid Stiff Competition

Google and Facebook have already started to provide local offers to users. For example, Google has partnered with businesses that advertise special deals to users of Google's search engine. Similarly, Facebook recently announced an initiative called "Deals" that allows merchants to make offerings through mobile devices to Facebook users who are near the merchant's location. AOL Patch is also similar service, and is already present in more than 300 cities across the U.S.

If Yahoo! can provide a differentiated product, it could attract more users to the site. The product could also boost user engagement and ultimately increase page views per visitor.

Yahoo! had about 600 million unique visitors in 2009, and we believe this number will continue to increase to around 800 million by the end of the Trefis forecast period.

Drag the trend line in the chart below to assess the impact of changes in Internet visitor totals on Yahoo!'s stock value.

Code for chart Internet Users on Yahoo!:

We forecast that Yahoo!'s page views per user will grow from around 250 per month in 2010 to around 265 by 2013.

There could be an upside of 10% to the

$18.53 Trefis price estimate for Yahoo! stock

if the company's unique visitor total increases to almost 850 million by 2013, and page views per user increases to around 285 per month by 2013 (assuming the upward trend continues through the Trefis forecast period).

Drag the trend-line in the chart below to assess the impact of changes in page views per user on Yahoo!'s stock value.

Code for chart Page Views per Internet User:

See our complete analysis of

Yahoo! here.

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This commentary comes from an independent investor or market observer as part of TheStreet guest contributor program. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of TheStreet or its management.

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