Zynga

Zynga is a provider of social game services founded in July 2007 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, USA. The company develops social games that work stand-alone on mobile phone platforms such as Apple iOS, Android, Windows Phone and on the Internet through its website, Zynga.com, and social networking websites such as Facebook, Google+, and Tencent QQ. Zynga states its mission as “connecting the world through games.” The company was named in honor of Zinga, former CEO Mark Pincus’s late American bulldog. Zynga launched what is considered its best-known game, FarmVille, on Facebook in June 2009, reaching 10 million daily active users (DAU) within six weeks. As of early January 2013, Zynga games had over 265 million monthly active users (MAU), and three of the top five Facebook games (in terms of MAU, according to AppData) were Zynga titles: FarmVille 2, Texas HoldEm Poker (now known as Zynga Poker), and ChefVille. According to the BBC, “figures suggest 80 percent of Zynga’s revenue comes from Facebook users,” but its relationship with Facebook ended March 31, 2013. Zynga began trading on NASDAQ December 16, 2011 under the ticker ZNGA. Originally priced at $10, ZNGA shares reached a price of $14.50 in March 2012, but fell steadily after that point, hitting $2.09 in 2012. Some analysts and journalists have questioned the long-term prospects of Zynga’s business model, especially after Zynga’s Q2 2012 earnings report failed to meet analyst projections for revenue and earnings. Zynga has been taking steps to cut expenses and expand its business into areas such as licensed board games, online gambling, its own gaming platform (Zynga.com), and mobile game apps.