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| company_name = Zynga Game Network, Inc
| company_name = Zynga Game Network, Inc
| company_logo = [[File:Zynga.svg|200px]]
| company_logo = [[File:Zynga.svg|200px]]
| company_type = Private company
| company_type = Scammers
| genre =
| genre =
| foundation = January 2007
| foundation = January 2007

Revision as of 09:08, 28 September 2011

Zynga Game Network, Inc
Type of businessScammers
Available inEnglish
FoundedJanuary 2007
HeadquartersSan Francisco, California, US
Area servedWorldwide
Founder(s)
  • Mark Pincus
  • Michael Luxton
  • Eric Schiermeyer
  • Justin Waldron
  • Andrew Trader
  • Steve Schoettler
Key peopleMark Pincus (CEO)
IndustryInteractive entertainment, Social network service
RevenueIncrease $850 million (2010)
Employees2000 </ref>
URLzynga.com
RegistrationYes
Users~232 million[1]
Current statusActive

Zynga (/ˈzɪŋɡə/) is a social network game developer located in San Francisco, United States.[3] The company develops browser-based games that work both stand-alone and as application widgets on social networking websites such as Facebook and Myspace.

As of July 2011, Zynga's games on Facebook have over 232 million monthly active users.[4] Five of Zynga's games, CityVille, Empires & Allies, Texas HoldEm Poker, FarmVille, and Adventure World, are the most widely used game applications on Facebook, with CityVille having over 14 million daily active users.[5]

Reportedly valued at $15 billion to $20 billion,[6] Zynga filed with the SEC to raise up to $1 billion in an initial public offering on July 1, 2011.[7] [8] Zynga has made strategic investments in several software companies, including Membase and Couchbase.[9]

History

Zynga was founded in January 2007 by Mark Pincus, Scott Sale and Kyle Stewart.[10] They received US$ $29 million in venture finance from several firms, led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in July 2008, at which time they appointed former Electronic Arts Chief Creative Officer Bing Gordon to the board.[11] At that time, they also bought YoVille, a large virtual world social network game.[11] According to the company's website, as of December 2009, it had 60 million unique daily active users.[12]

Zynga was named after an American bulldog once owned by Mark Pincus.[13][14] They use a bulldog as their symbol.

As of September 2010, Zynga had over 1,200 employees.[15]

On February 17, 2010, Zynga opened Zynga India in Bangalore, the company’s first office outside the United States.[16]

On March 18, 2010, Zynga confirmed that it will open a second international office in Ireland.[17]

On May 7, 2010, Michael Arrington of TechCrunch reported that Zynga was threatening to leave Facebook altogether in the wake of Facebook's requiring exclusive use of Facebook Credits for monetization in applications.[18] After Facebook negotiations for having Zynga host its games solely on Facebook fell through, Facebook retaliated by shutting off notifications for several Zynga games, including FarmVille.[18] Plans surfaced for Zynga to distance itself from Facebook by creating a new "Zynga Live" network, to be called ZLive.[19] On May 18, 2010, Facebook and Zynga entered into a five-year relationship to expand the use of Facebook Credits in Zynga's games. Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, was quoted as saying, "We are pleased to enter into a new agreement with Zynga to enhance the experience for Facebook users who play Zynga games." The companies stated they were testing the use of Facebook Credits, which would allow Facebook to effectively capture 30% of any user's spending in the game, and their use would be gradually rolled out to all games.[20] In a May 24, 2011 discussion at TechCrunch Disrupt, Arrington and Bing Gordon described the incident as the "Cuban Missile Crisis of tech".[21]

On June 3, 2010, Zynga acquired Challenge Games.[22]

With the acquisition of Dextrose, now Zynga Germany, representing the company's first expansion into Europe, Zynga has 13 studios around the world, including offices in Sunnyvale, Los Gatos, Los Angeles, Boston, Baltimore, Bangalore, Beijing, and Tokyo.

On October 5, 2010 Bonfire Studios was acquired by Zynga. It was renamed "Zynga Dallas". The acquisition brought Zynga's workforce to more than 1300 employees worldwide.

As reported by Bloomberg and others,[23] stock trades on the private stock sale service SharesPost established a valuation of above $5 billion for the company, greater than the public market capitalization of gaming industry leader Electronic Arts and had more than 320 million registered users, 1,300 employees and estimated revenues above $500 million for 2010.[24][25]

On December 2, 2010, Zynga announced that it acquired the Texas-based mobile game developer Newtoy, Inc., developers of the game "Words With Friends",[26] and renamed the studio to Zynga With Friends.[27]

In December 2010, Zynga's game CityVille surpassed FarmVille as its most popular game[28] with over 61 million monthly active users and a base of over 16 million daily active users.[29]

Zynga has acquired the New York-based game developer Area/Code, now renamed Zynga New York.

In March 2011, Zynga announced the acquisition of the team from Massachusetts game developer Floodgate Entertainment. It was Zynga’s tenth acquisition in ten months.[30]

In April 2011, Zynga announced the acquisition of MarketZero, an online poker tracker company.[31]

Also in March 2011, the company channeled 100% of direct donations or revenue from virtual goods purchases through its social games (over $1 million) to Japan for the relief efforts related to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake.[32] The company had been criticized in the past for keeping up to 50% of donations it collected.[33]

In April 2011, the company partnered with Lady Gaga in a new game offering.[34] In May 2011, the company was reported to be in the process of raising an additional $500 million with a valuation at $10 billion[35]

As of July 1, 2011, the company had 2,000 employees.[36]

Business model

Zynga is supported in two manners: via direct credit card payments and partner businesses.[37][38] Several Zynga games require an "Energy" characteristic to play. Engaging in "Missions", a core feature of many games, consumes a certain amount of energy. After expending energy, it slowly replenishes to the character's maximum limit. This can take minutes or several hours (energy replenishes whether or not players are logged into the game). After energy is replenished, players can engage in additional missions. Waiting for energy to replenish is a significant limiting factor in the games. Their support mechanisms take advantage of this.

Zynga games are linked to offers from a number of partners. Players can accept credit card offers, take surveys or buy services from Zynga's partners in order to obtain game credits, which would allow them to replenish their character's energy or receive premium currency that could be exchanged for other various virtual goods.

Players may also purchase game credits directly from Zynga via credit cards[37] or PayPal. From within the game, players can purchase the points for a fee: US$5.00 for 21 game credits, for example.

In March 2010 Zynga started selling prepaid cards for virtual currency at more than 12,800 stores across the US.[39]

Zynga also sells advertising sponsorships within some games such as movie tie-ins and other brands.[40]

Platinum Purchase Program

In September 2010, Gawker reported that Zynga had set up a "Platinum Purchase Program" allowing members to purchase virtual currency in amounts over $500 at favorable rates by making a payment via wire transfer. In contrast, the normal maximum purchase limits are $50 to $200.[41] As with other social game companies, Zynga depends on a small core of large spenders, known within the industry as "whales", for a large part of its income.[42] Ryan Tate, author of the post, speculated that the program was a way for gaming addicts to feed their obsession, and compared the secrecy of the program to the secrecy of drug deals.[41]

Relationship with Facebook

On July 18, 2011, Zynga filed an addendum to its Form S-1 detailing its relationship with Facebook, including the 2010 five-year agreement to exclusively use Facebook credits. According to the released information, all covered Zynga games that use Facebook integration must remain exclusive to Facebook for the duration of the agreement, and Zynga is not allowed to release new games on an undisclosed list of other social networks. Also, Zynga is required to notify Facebook of any new games at least one week prior to their release. Finally, Facebook agrees to help Zynga reach "certain growth targets for monthly unique users of Covered Zynga Games" and to share ad revenue with Zynga.[43][44]

Studios and subsidiaries

Zynga has acquired many studios across the world.

Current

  • Zynga Headquarters (San Francisco). New 270,000 square feet (25,000 m2) headquarters under renovation for occupancy in late 2011 at the site of former Sega offices.[45]
  • Zynga India (Bangalore, India)
  • Zynga Los Angeles – opened February 2010[46]
  • Zynga China (formerly XPD Media, based in Beijing) – acquired May 2010
  • Zynga Austin (formerly Challenge Games) – acquired June 2010
  • Zynga Boston (formerly Conduit Labs) – acquired August 2010
  • Zynga Japan (formerly Unoh Games, based in Tokyo) – acquired August 2010
  • Zynga Germany (formerly Dextrose AG, based in Frankfurt) – acquired September 2010
  • Zynga Dallas (formerly Bonfire Studios) – acquired October 2010
  • Zynga with Friends (formerly Newtoy, Inc., based in McKinney, Texas) – acquired November, 2010
  • Zynga New York (formerly Area/Code) – acquired January 2011
  • Zynga Seattle – opened October 2010[47]
  • Floodgate Entertainment – acquired March 2011
  • Zynga Toronto (formerly Five Mobile) specialized in mobile platforms - acquired July 2011

Controversies

In its first years of existence, Zynga has been criticized on various fronts.

Spam concerns

Many of Zynga's games revolve around interacting with other players for in-game benefits. Many non-players have notably complained about such communications created by those games that appear to them as "spammy." Peter Jamison described Zynga's communications as a "deluge" of "unwanted gifts or requests for neighborly 'help.'"[48] Facebook groups created to express displeasure regarding overexposure of Zynga's games attracted millions of members.[37] As a result of this, Facebook modified their application developers policy to prevent applications from sending messages to news feeds of friends or submitting updates to the notifications bar.[49][50] Kotaku attributed the removal of Facebook notifications to a decline of users of Zynga games in April and May 2010.[51]

Game quality

Georgia Tech professor Ian Bogost criticized Zynga's apathy towards game aesthetics, comparing that apathy to "strip-mining."[48]

Critics like Nick Saint of Business Insider have said that Zynga's games have essentially the same mechanics even though they have different premises and settings.[50]

Replication of existing games

Zynga has been accused several times of copying game concepts of popular games by competing developers.[52][53]

The launch of Mafia Wars sparked a lawsuit from the makers of Mob Wars.[54] An attorney for Psycho Monkey, the creators of Mob Wars, said that in making Mafia Wars, Zynga "copied virtually every important aspect of the game."[55] The suit was settled out of court for $7–9 million.[56]

Ars Technica noted that Zynga's Cafe World and Playfish's Restaurant City were "nearly identical"; Cafe World was released six months after Restaurant City. Its gameplay, design, graphics, avatars, and even in-game items are almost identical to the ones in Restaurant City. Many players who have played Restaurant City and Cafe World have noticed the extreme similarities between both games.[57] In addition, journalists have remarked that Zynga's FarmVille is similar to Farm Town, with Peter Jamison calling it "uncannily similar."[48][55]

Other companies have responded by copying Zynga's games as well. Playfish, publisher of Pet Society (a game similar to Zynga's Petville), announced the creation of Poker Rivals to rival Zynga Poker.[53] Playfish then launched a game called Gangster City, which is similar to Mafia Wars.

Viability

Many journalists have questioned the viability of Zynga's business model. Ray Valdes questioned the long-term prospects for Zynga, saying that it would be difficult for the company to make new titles to replace old ones whose novelty is fading.[13] In December 2009, Tadhg Kelly, writing for Gamasutra, said that Zynga was at the "end of the beginning," noting that Zynga's business model is dependent on Facebook continuing to operate in the same manner and users continuing to expect the same quality of games, among others. Kelly also compared Zynga to Atari, which also churned out large numbers of simple games prior to the North American video game crash of 1983 and further claimed that Zynga's approach of creating similar clones of popular games would be impossible for deeper games.[58] Tom Bollich, a former Zynga investor, said that it is impossible to make a cheap viral game, and that retaining customers is difficult.[48]

In September 2010, SF Weekly reported that an employee recalled Mark Pincus advising him to "copy what [Zynga's competitors] do and do it until you get their numbers."[48]

Zynga founder Mark Pincus has dismissed the criticisms, saying that competing video game makers have always released similar titles for each genre of game.[37] The managing director of Lightspeed Venture Partners said that creating similar competing games has "always been part of the game industry."[55]

Scam ads

Through 2009 Zynga made money from lead generation advertising schemes, whereby game participants would earn game points by signing up for featured credit cards or video-rental services. These were criticized as being less cost-effective than simply buying game points, and in some cases, being outright scams that would download unwanted software or unwittingly sign up for a recurring subscription.[37] One ad signed up players for subscriptions to expensive and unwanted text-messaging services.[38]

On October 31, 2009, Michael Arrington of TechCrunch said that Zynga intentionally worked with scam advertisers, and that lead generation made up a third of Zynga's revenue.[59] Arrington also alleged that Facebook was complicit in this.[60] On November 2, 2009, CEO Mark Pincus announced a reform in its offers: Tatto Media, a major offer provider that enrolled users into recurring cell phone subscriptions, would be banned, all mobile offers would be removed, and offer providers would be required to pre-screen offers.[61]

Arrington continued to question Pincus' role in the scams, republishing a video of a speech by Pincus.[62] In the speech, Pincus said:

So I funded [Zynga] myself but I did every horrible thing in the book to, 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.

— Speech from Startup@Berkeley, in x, x, Mark Pincus

In response, Pincus noted that after offering the Zwinky toolbar, his team of ten decided to remove it since it was a "painful experience."[63]

Several days after the Techcrunch story, Zynga's most recent Facebook game FishVille, was temporarily taken offline by Facebook on claim of advertising violations. According to Zynga, Fishville had 875,000 users within two days of launch. A release from Facebook on its reasons for taking the game offline read that "FishVille will remain suspended until Facebook is satisfied that Zynga demonstrates compliance with Facebook restrictions – as well as Zynga’s own restrictions – on the ads it offers users."[64] FishVille was later un-suspended at midnight November 9–10.[65]

Several suits were filed against Zynga for promoting such offers,[66][67] including the class-action lawsuit Swift v. Zynga in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California for violation of the Unfair competition law and the Consumers Legal Remedies Act, after the lead plaintiff's credit card was billed more than $200 for offers she completed to receive YoVille currency.[68][69][70]

Pincus later said that he had been too eager to increase company revenues through advertising, and that operating in reactive mode by taking down ads only after receiving complaints had not worked. The company removed all ads for a time, relying only on direct purchase of game currency, then began reintroducing third party ads only after they had been screened.[37]

Other criticism

In September 2009 Zynga was threatened with legal action by Nissan for using their trademarks in the game Street Racing. Zynga subsequently renamed and changed the thumbnail images of all cars that were branded Nissan and Infiniti to "Sindats" and "Fujis" with the thumbnails changed.[71] At the time they also renamed and redesigned automobiles depicted as being made by GM, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Saab, and others.

In March 2009, CEO Mark Pincus admitted that Zynga has been running gambling affiliate ads in their Facebook games for a year.[72]

In late May 2010, the Norwegian Consumer Council filed a complaint to the Data Inspectorate regarding breaches of the Data Protection Act.[73]

In August 2010, the San Francisco city attorney's office complained about the firm's guerrilla marketing campaign for its Mafia Wars game that pasted fake money on city sidewalks, calling it "vandalism".[74]

Intellectual property

In October 2010, Zynga was criticized on Hacker News[75] and other social media sites for having filed a patent application[76] relating to the ability to purchase virtual currency for cash on gambling and other gaming sites. Commentators said that significant prior art exists for the concept.

In January 2011, Techdirt reported that Zynga had sent a cease and desist letter to Blingville alleging trademark infringement for its use of the letters "ville" in the name of a proposed Facebook game. Blingville has filed a suit for declaratory judgment that it is not infringing a Zynga trademark.[77] As reported in Gamasutra, Jay Monahan of Zynga responded by saying that Blingville's "[use] of the name 'BlingVille' is an obvious attempt to capitalize on the fame and goodwill associated with Zynga's family of 'ville' games which includes FarmVille and CityVille".[78]

On May 20, 2011, it was reported that The Learning Company, owners of The Oregon Trail trademark, filed a trademark infringement suit against Zynga, who is planning an "Oregon Trail" expansion to FrontierVille.[79] The Learning Company had previously contacted Zynga about an Oregon Trail game on Facebook, but Zynga declined.[80] On May 24, Games.com writer Brandy Shaul wrote that Zynga was dropping the Oregon Trail name and soliciting new names for the expansion.[81] The name of the expansion is now "Pioneer Trail".

Funding

In December 2009, Russia's Digital Sky Technologies bought a $180 million share of Zynga.[82]

In 2010, a combined $300 million from Softbank and Google were invested in Zynga.[38]

More recently, Zynga has been rumored to be close to a deal that values the company at approximately $10 billion through a capital raise from a group of investors that include mutual funds associated with T. Rowe Price and Fidelity Investments. This round of funding would raise $500 million in primary capital for the company.[83]

In June 2011, The Wall Street Journal estimated Zynga's value at $19 billion.[84]

Zynga has been identified as a possible candidate for an IPO by 2013.[85] Equity analysts have stated that their recent actions have made it clear they are preparing themselves for an IPO in the near future.[83] On May 24, 2011, AllThingsD.com reported that Zynga was planning to file for an IPO within the week or two.[86] By June 11, according to The Wall Street Journal, Zynga was in the process of finalizing its IPO offering.[84] Zynga is planning to offer only 10% of its shares to the public.[84]

On June 28, CNBC journalist Kate Kelly reported that Zynga would be filing Form S-1 as early as the following day. The expected IPO would raise $1.5 billion to $2 billion.[58]

On July 1, 2011, the company filed its Form S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).[87]

Games

Games discontinued

  • Attack!
  • Dope Wars
  • Dragon Wars
  • Fashion Wars
  • Football
  • Gang Wars
  • Ghost Racer
  • Guild of Heroes
  • Heroes vs. Villains
  • Music Pets
  • My Heroes Ability
  • Ponzi Inc.
  • Prison Lockdown
  • Roller Coaster Kingdom
  • Space Wars
  • Special Forces
  • Street Racing[88]
  • Triumph
  • It Girl
  • Poker Blitz

Zynga.org

Zynga started a charity sister company, Zynga.org, in charge of incorporating charitable contributions into its games. Zynga.org has raised more than $10 million for several international nonprofits.[89]

For example, since at least October 2009, through its game FarmVille, Zynga offered special sugar beets which customers can purchase with real-world money. Proceeds from the donation go to two Haiti-based charities: FATEM.org and FONKOZE.org. By October 20, the sugar beet promotion had raised $427,000 and was expected to raise $2 million by year's end.[90][91] Zynga used tie-ins via three of its top games to raise money for relief of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.[92] Zynga offers special bulldogs in YoVille, the proceeds going to the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.[93][94]

In January 2010, Zynga.org raised $1.5 million for Haiti Earthquake Relief.[95] In September 2010, Zynga.org raised $500,000 in two days for L’Ecole de Choix, a K-12 school Zynga is building in Mirebalais, Haiti.[96] In addition, in December 2010 Zynga raised over $800,000 for the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, as part of the UCSF Challenge for the Children competition.[97]

On March 11, 2011, Zynga announced that 100% of proceeds from purchases of virtual goods in more than seven of its games would go to Japan's Save the Children Earthquake Emergency Fund.[98][99] Virtual goods included daikon in Farmville.[100] On March 15, 2011, Zynga offered the purchase of a "Japanese Countryside Home" in Yoville, also stating that 100% of proceeds would go to Save the Children.[101] The company had been criticized in the past for keeping up to 50% of the donations it collected.[33]

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  68. ^ Swartz, Jon (December 7, 2009). "Lawsuit says ads in social games are scamming players". USA Today. Retrieved December 10, 2009.
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