Difference between revisions of "Zynga"

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	===Gambling===		===Gambling===
	[[File:zyngaslots.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Zynga Slots is one of Zynga's Most Popular Gambling Games]]		[[File:zyngaslots.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Zynga Slots is one of Zynga's Most Popular Gambling Games]]
−	In late 2012, Zynga reached an agreement with Bwin.Party—an online gambling site, based in London— to provide real-money online casino games.  One announced game will be a Farmville themed slots game.  Currently, online real-money gambling is legal in the United Kingdom and much of Europe, but not the United States.  The first games will be launched for users in the United Kingdom in early 2013. <ref>Zynga Online Gambling Launch http://www.businessinsider.com/zynga-online-gambling-launch-2012-10</ref>  The two firms will be joining their pools of users to under one platform. Barry Cottle, an executive and Zynga explains the companies interest in this deal, “Partnering with an established leader like Bwin.Party is a strategic and prudent way for us to enter a key RMG market while giving local players the real money games they’ve been asking us for.” <ref>[http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news/14300-zynga-partners-with-bwin-party-for-poker-in-u-k Zynga Partners with Bwin.Party for Poker in the UK]</ref>	+	In late 2012, Zynga reached an agreement with Bwin.Party—an online gambling site, based in London— to provide real-money online casino games.  One announced game will be a Farmville themed slots game.  Currently, online real-money gambling is legal in the United Kingdom and much of Europe, but not the United States.  The first games will be launched for users in the United Kingdom in early 2013. <ref>Zynga Online Gambling Launch http://www.businessinsider.com/zynga-online-gambling-launch-2012-10</ref>  The two firms will be joining their pools of users to under one platform. Barry Cottle, an executive and Zynga explains the companies interest in this deal, “Partnering with an established leader like Bwin.Party is a strategic and prudent way for us to enter a key RMG market while giving local players the real money games they’ve been asking us for.” <ref>http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news/14300-zynga-partners-with-bwin-party-for-poker-in-u-k </ref>
	===Zynga on Television===		===Zynga on Television===

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Revision as of 20:14, 11 December 2012

ZYNGA

Get More Play zynga homepage Type Social Game Services Provider Launch Date July 2007 Status Active Product Line Games Platform Social Networking Apps iOS Android Website www.zynga.com

ynga is a company which has created several popular social media games. Zynga's games can be played on operating systems sucha as iOS 6 and Android, as well as on the Internet via social media sites, Facebook and Google +. Zynga's mission statement is "Connecting the world through games". It was reported that Zynga has over 240 million monthly active users, in over 175 different countries around the world. ^[1] The majority of the games Zynga offers are free or charge; however, players have the option of using a credit card or a service such as PayPal to buy virtual currency to purchase in-game virtual goods that enhance, extend, or accelerate gameplay. ^[2]

History

Zynga was founded by Mark Pincus in 2007. He named the company after his American Bulldog, Zinga. Zynga's headquarters are located in San Francisco, California and has a total of 13 studios worldwide, including offices in Sunnyvale, Los Gatos, Los Angeles, Boston, Baltimore, Bangalore, Beijing, and Tokyo. ^[3] Other important "founding fathers" of Zynga include Eric Schiermeyer, Michael Luxton, Justin Waldron, Kyle Stewart, Scott Dale, Steve Schoettler, and Andrew Trader. Today, Zynga has roughly over 2,800 full and part-time employees. ^[4]

Games

The first game created by Zynga was Zynga Poker, a Texas Hold'em style of online poker gaming. Zynga currently holds 4 of the top leaderboard positions for most monthly active users on Facebook in its games: Cityville, Farmville, Texas Hold'em Poker, and Empires & Allies. ^[5] Zynga also has 17 Facebook games, as well as 15 mobile-title games. Its popular mobile games include Words With Friends, Scrabble With Friends, Hanging With Friends, Mafia Wars, and Zynga Slots. The popular omgpop game, DrawSomething, was added to the Zynga repertoire when omgpop was acquired by Zynga in 2012.

Zynga's games are available on a number of global platforms, including Facebook, Zynga.com, Google+, Tencent, Apple iOS and Google Android.

List of Zynga Games^[6]

Revenue and Growth

Within just the last five years of being founded, Zynga has generated more than $1.5 billion in revenues. This is a huge amount of growth for a small-scale IPO. It is now trying to seize the leading share of a $9 billion virtual goods market that it believes could triple in the next five years. Since its start, the company has received a total of $519 million in funding from individuals and companies alike. Surprising to many, less than 10% of Zynga's revenue comes from advertising, while 36% comes from use outside the United States. On October 5, 2010 Bonfire Studios was acquired by Zynga, changing its name to Zynga Dallas. ^[7] In December 2011, Zynga began officially trading on NASDAQ under the ticker ZNGA. Shares for the company were initially set at $10 but in March 2012, they peaked to just under $15. However, Zynga's stock prices have dropped since and have been closing in the $2-$3 range for the past couple of months. ^[8] In October of 2012, Zynga shut down its Boston office, letting go over a hundred employees.^[9]

Future

In 2012, Zynga's stock began to plummet. CEO Mark Pincus claims that due to change in Facebook game promotion, Zynga's games have not been as popular as they once were. Zynga officials said that Facebook is promoting newer games over older games, which decreased engagement on Zynga’s older titles. Zynga's older titles such as Farmville and Cityville are some of the most popular online games, and since their popularity has fallen, the company as a whole has suffered. Also, since Zynga acquired DrawSomething from omgpop for $180 million, it has "underperformed" and the number of users has been rapidly decreasing. Pincus states that "in the future, [user should] look for more hits on the desktop, mobile and gambling games, as well as Zynga’s new third-party platform".^[10]

Gambling

In late 2012, Zynga reached an agreement with Bwin.Party—an online gambling site, based in London— to provide real-money online casino games. One announced game will be a Farmville themed slots game. Currently, online real-money gambling is legal in the United Kingdom and much of Europe, but not the United States. The first games will be launched for users in the United Kingdom in early 2013. ^[11] The two firms will be joining their pools of users to under one platform. Barry Cottle, an executive and Zynga explains the companies interest in this deal, “Partnering with an established leader like Bwin.Party is a strategic and prudent way for us to enter a key RMG market while giving local players the real money games they’ve been asking us for.” ^[12]

Zynga on Television

In a move to reduce Zynga's heavy dependence on Facebook, the company agreed to a deal with the technology firm Synacore Inc. Synacore provdies web-TV services to nearly 50 cable, satellite, and telecom companies. With this partnership Zynga hopes to make game currency available to Synacore subscription service users. Starting in 2013, customers with web-TV's will be able to access many of Zynga's games from their television home pages. ^[13]

Ethical Concerns

Advertising Scams

Zynga was at the center of a class action lawsuit following complaints that the developer had used dishonest advertising to generate huge revenues. More than $5 million is being sought from both Zynga and Facebook, the latter being the platform that Zynga’s advertisements went through.^[14] Zynga’s cost-per-action ads gave users virtual currency for participating in various surveys, quizzes, or signing up for trial offers. It was alleged that some companies used Zynga’s cost-per-action ads illicitly, making unauthorized credit charges. It was found that some of the scams from Zynga lead players to download unwanted software and toolbars, or have users unknowingly sign up for memberships that would later appear on monthly phone bills.^[15] In November 2009, CEO Mark Pincus admitted that scamming users was part of Zynga's original business model.

"I knew that I wanted to control my destiny, so I knew I needed revenues, right, fucking, now. Like I needed revenues now. So I funded the company myself but I did every horrible thing in the book too, just to get revenues right away. I mean we gave our users poker chips if they downloaded this zwinky toolbar which was like, I don't know, I downloaded it once and couldn’t get rid of it. *laughs* We did anything possible just to just get revenues so that we could grow and be a real business…So control your destiny. So that was a big lesson, controlling your business. So by the time we raised money we were profitable."^[16]

Pincus later insisted that this method was only formerly used and has since vowed that the company’s games do not include scam offers anymore.

Employee Layoff

In October 2012, Zynga was reported to lay off 5 percent of employees. ^[17] These layoffs took place at Zynga's office in Austin relating to groups who worked on The Ville and Bingo games. To try and hide this grim news, Zynga's CEO Mark Pincus was reported to have announced the layoffs during an Apple event. In addition to the layoffs at Zynga's Austin branch in Texas, Zynga's Boston office was also reported to close entirely. ^[18] This cause much grief among Zynga employees, and was seen as cruel act on Pincus' behalf.

Copyright and Patent Issues

Zynga has several issues dealing with copyrights and patents regarding their game releases. Zynga has been accused multiple times of copying different types of game concepts, or games in general, by simply renaming the title and tweaking some of its features. Such intellectual property controversies have resulted in lawsuits by game developers who claim their ideas have been stolen and tampered by Zynga without any reciprocation to the original creators. Recently, SocialApps sued Zynga for stealing their information on myFarm to create FarmVille. Social Apps signed a Letter of Agreement permitting Zynga access to their source code. Once Zynga had access, their phone lines went dead and they released their new version of FarmVille in June 2009 after myFarm was released in 2008 through Facebook. ^[19] In February 2012, Zynga released a game on iOS called Dream Heights which spurred controversy over NimbleBit, the developers of Tiny Tower. According to NimbleBit, Zynga copied their game and even attempted to buy out the company but NimbleBit refused. ^[20]

In June 2011, Zynga was on the opposite side in which they filed a lawsuit on the Brazilian company Votsu, which exists solely to copy Zynga games. Zynga's complaint was, "Vostu has brazenly appropriated the copyright-protected aspects of Zynga’s games (as well as almost every other aspect of Zynga’s business) – with scant effort to mask their strategy– and then offered games virtually identical to Zynga’s games to prospective players in the United States and elsewhere". ^[21] Votsu retaliated, claiming that they had partnership talks and meetings with Zynga. They presented a counter suit stating that Zynga cannot claim copyrights over everyday objects and places such as barns, farms and chairs and recalls that Zynga has in the past copied designs from other companies as well. ^[22]

References

1. ↑ CrunchBase: Zynga http://www.crunchbase.com/company/zynga
2. ↑ Zynga Inc. Company Profile http://www.hoovers.com/company-information/cs/company-profile.Zynga_Inc.43115865bec8017f.html/
3. ↑ Zynga Website http://zynga.com/
4. ↑ Number of Employees ZNGA http://www.macroaxis.com/invest/ratio/ZNGA--Number_of_Employees
5. ↑ Zynga’s Journey From Founding to IPO http://mashable.com/2011/07/01/zynga-ipo-infographic/
6. ↑ Mobile Games http://company.zynga.com/games/mobile-games
7. ↑ History of Zynga Inc http://www.ripgamescenter.com/2011/09/history-of-zynga-inc-social-network.html
8. ↑ How Zynga Grew http://venturebeat.com/2011/12/12/zynga-history/
9. ↑ TechCrunch: Zynga Just Shut Down Boston Office, Laid Off 100+ Employees From The Ville And Bingo Teams In Austin http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/23/zynga-layoffs/
10. ↑ Why Zynga's Earnings Missed http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2012/07/25/why-zyngas-earnings-missed-and-what-it-plans-in-response
11. ↑ Zynga Online Gambling Launch http://www.businessinsider.com/zynga-online-gambling-launch-2012-10
12. ↑ http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news/14300-zynga-partners-with-bwin-party-for-poker-in-u-k
13. ↑ Zynga to Bundle Games with Cable TV
14. ↑ Zynga faces lawsuit over ad scam
15. ↑ http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/02/23/facebook.games/?hpt=Sbin
16. ↑ Scamville: The Social Gaming Ecosystem Of Hell
17. ↑ http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/23/3544176/zynga-reportedly-lays-off-100-employees-during-apples-event-shutters
18. ↑ http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/23/zynga-layoffs/
19. ↑ July 19, 2011. Robert Purchese. SocialApps: FarmVille stole myFarm code http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-07-19-socialapps-farmville-stole-myfarm-code
20. ↑ January 24, 2012. Greg Kumparak Tiny Tower Developers Call Out Zynga For Copying Their Game http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/24/tiny-tower-developers-call-out-zynga-for-their-look-alike-game/
21. ↑ June 16, 2011. Michael Arrington. WAR! Zynga Sues The Hell Out Of Brazilian Clone Vostu http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/16/war-zynga-sues-the-hell-out-of-brazilian-clone-vostu/
22. ↑ July 20, 2011. Nick Bilton. Zynga Is Hit With Countersuit Over Game Designs http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/20/zynga-is-hit-with-countersuit-over-game-designs/

External Links

• Zynga Official Website
• Zynga Twitter
• Zynga Wikipedia Article

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